Black, White and Red All Over
by Nitrobot
Summary: In which Eddie and Felicia fall in love for the third time in their lives, and are absolutely terrified by it. Actual plot summary: After the events of Venom Inc, Felicia takes Eddie's advice to let go of her lost gang and start over anew. But when she lays out her plans to drag Venom into her new life of fighting crime, he starts wishing he'd just kept his mouth shut.
1. Night 1

_Now I know what you're thinking: 'Nitro where the fuck have you been all this time?' Answer; over at AO3, working on this story for the last seven months. Cause absolutely no-one has written anything with Venom and Black Cat as a couple, so as usual I have to do it myself. This takes place shortly after the Venom Inc. storyline, disregarding events of First Host and Cates' current Venom run. _

_The full 30 chapters are posted and ready to read over at AO3 under the same username as on here, but for the purposes of getting as many people seeing this as possible I'll be updating with one chapter a day on here, so that the whole thing will be uploaded by the end of the month. _

**xx**

"It doesn't matter if they're on sale," Eddie insisted, "we can't afford a whole case full of Snickers."

The symbiote had been sulking the whole way home, curled up somewhere along his brainstem as it tried to tempt his mind to change. "**C**_**ould always just take them**_," it offered.

"Absolutely not." Eddie lowered his voice as they entered their building, always cautious of who might be listening beyond the thin walls of the stairwell. "We have enough bad rep as it is. You've seen what they've been saying about us."

"_**Could always kill whoever opens their mouth**_."

"I'm gonna up the medicine dose if you keep thinking like that," Eddie warned, to the sound of a gurgling apology.

"_**Sorry, Eddie… just hungry**_." The symbiote retreated from his skull, dripping down his spine to rest in the pit of his stomach. Guilt surged up from that pit like an acid reflux. Eddie sighed as he climbed the stairs to their floor.

"I know, love. I'm sorry." He unlocked their door. "Just hold out a little longer. As soon as the cheque comes in tomorrow, we'll-" He lost track of his promise when he noticed the window was open, a cold breeze skimming across the symbiote's skin as it spilled over him in a reflex of protection.

He hadn't left it open.

He hadn't left the TV on, either. The light from it flashed over the figure lounging on his bed, who had only just noticed his arrival.

Eddie hadn't seen Black Cat since he found her lamenting over all she'd lost to the Maniac symbiote, two weeks ago by his count, long enough for her to have changed her look. She'd gone back to the white fur cuffs and collar to match her hair, but the black suit looked the same as ever; shiny latex that reflected Eddie's bewildered expression. The symbiote had half-covered him before they both realised they weren't in danger, and its black mass reflected her too. She looked bored.

"About time you got home." Felicia sounded weary as she clicked the TV off, swinging her legs down over the edge of the bed as if this was _her_ room, and he was the one intruding on her. "Put it away, Eddie, I'm not here to cause trouble. I need your help."

Eddie kept the symbiote clinging to his arms as he clenched his fists. "And I need a lock for that window. How long were you waiting here for?!"

"Long enough to flick three times through all 15 channels on that junk box you call a TV."

"_**She's mocking the TV, Eddie! Kill her**__!" _

Eddie hushed the symbiote. "How the hell do you even know where we live?"

"You're not exactly inconspicuous, you know." Felicia finally took the hint from Eddie's endless glaring and rose to her feet, padding like her namesake towards him as she reached for something behind her back. The symbiote reached for Eddie's fingers, forming them into claws as sharp as her own...

She pulled her hand back into view, and Eddie was prepared to counter whatever attack she had in mind, but it never came. She'd just unveiled a chocolate bar from somewhere in her suit. "Now, be a good boy and listen. There's candy in it for you."

"_**Candy? Candy**__!" _

'_Well, _you _changed your tone real quick,' _Eddie thought as he held his other back, narrowing his eyes at the cat's offer.

"...Who told you we like chocolate?" It was hard to sound intimidating when the symbiote was making him salivate. Felicia cocked her head with a winning smile.

"Well, that rippling physique of yours might not give it away, but I happened to notice that Flash always binged it when _he_ had that thing on him."

Eddie only got more suspicious at the mention of that self-righteous symbiote thief, but the temptation was too strong. A black-stained hand snatched the candy bar from her as he seated himself on his bed.

"You have until this bar is finished," he warned her as he peeled away the wrapper, tearing through almost half of it in one bite. Mmm, Hershey's… the symbiote spread itself along his stomach lining in anticipation.

Felicia could only hear him moan at how good her bargaining ploy tasted, and she knew she'd have plenty of time to explain. "You remember what you said to me, after the whole mess with Lee Price?"

He grunted around the mouthful of chocolate, too busy savouring it to be wary of what came next. The symbiote was having a field day as it absorbed its fair share.

"Well… you were right." Felicia shrugged in her own private defeat of the mind, seating herself on the other chair- well, not sitting down so much as spreading herself over the top of it. Her boots on the armrest kept her rooted.

"Being a boss was nice while it lasted, and I don't regret any of it… but I know I'm better than that. I don't need rats off the street doing all my dirty work for me just so I can keep my claws clean. So, I'm going back to my roots. Even got my old suit back, the one thing that survived that wreck." She tugged at the white fur that exploded around her neck and lead the usual eye down to her exposed cleavage.

Eddie, for all his unique talents and otherworldly experience, still had the eyes of a normal man. Now that he knew he wasn't in danger, even he couldn't stop himself glancing down at the obvious.

"Uh huh. It, uh… still looks good on you." He gulped the rest of the chocolate down, so he could change the subject before Felicia picked up on and mentioned his hesitation in admitting that. The symbiote wouldn't help him here. She'd bribed it with its least painful weakness, and now it was in her debt. In her pocket. At least until the sugar high wore off.

"So, you come here just to sell your inspirational autobiography?"

Felicia smiled again, lips curved like scimitars. "Actually, I have a proposition. So far you've been in the vigilante business longer than I have. And since this was _your_ idea," she pointed a clawed glove towards him, "you owe me some help in getting back into it."

"_**Don't like that look on her face, Eddie… don't feel so hungry anymore**_." The symbiote retreated to the base of his spine, forsaking its claim on his stomach to guard itself against the cat's grin. Eddie scowled as he shoved the accusing hand away.

"What happened to you being 'your own thing'?" He flexed his fingers around the skeptical quote. Just because they'd teamed up those few weeks ago to take down Maniac in the first place didn't mean he was a hero-for-hire, or blackmail, or whatever she really had in mind.

"A girl can change her mind when it suits her," Felicia answered with a shrug. "And I think this could suit both of us quite well."

Eddie scoffed at her confidence. "You might think so, but _we_ don't."

She only seemed more amused at his reluctance to play along. "Really? Cause it just so happens I know I'm not the _only_ one going back to basics. Didn't you have to go back to reporting just to pay rent?"

"...Your point being?"

Under her mask, Felicia rolled her eyes and flashed their lashes with a weary sigh. "And here I hoped your biceps weren't bigger than your brain. It's simple, Eddie. You help me track down the syndicates still lurking around, and you'll get first dibs on all the details. The fallout alone will keep you writing for _months_."

She looked very proud of her logic, and so she should have been. Eddie was almost convinced right then, the old habit of leaping at any semblance of opportunity starting to creep back up on him. However, the symbiote was faster. It prickled on his skin, a sharp bite to keep his senses sharper.

"...Let me get this straight," he said. "You want us…. to tell _you_, the former crime boss, where all _your_ old buddies are camping out."

"They all went underground since the Maniac incident," she explained, as if speaking to a child. "And, even if I still had contact with them, I don't trust my chances alone against them. Especially not if some of them are working together."

"So then just how do you expect to track them down?" he asked.

That smile was back, along with all of Eddie's misgivings about her. "I'm one of the only people in this city who knows _who_ they are. The people behind the scenes. And, as far as they all know, I'm still on their side. They won't suspect a thing."

"_If_ you can keep that up," he said.

"That's where _you_ come in." Felicia finally sat in the chair like a normal human being- well, as close to normal as anyone in this city could get. "I'll tell you where the targets are, and you'll be the one to take them out. Since you already have a reputation for it, none of them will suspect that you're targeting them. They'll just think it's a string of bad luck."

"Bad luck is exactly what you're known for," he pointed out, but she was more invested in examining the claws on her gloves than listening to him.

"Wherever they are, they'll keep themselves well hidden," she went on. "For all I know, you could have gotten to some of them already." She leaned forward, threading her clawed fingers together under her chin. Despite the fur that must have tickled her cheeks, she looked completely serious. "But once we know where to start, everything else will fall into place. All I need are some clues, and I can piece together what they're all up to. All _you_ need to do is let me tag along on your little patrols, and I'll point them all out to you."

Eddie knew he was running out of excuses to get out of this, at least ways that wouldn't end with his apartment wrecked. The symbiote was still hissing along his nerves, agitated with nowhere else to go but racing up and down his spine.

"_**Don't trust her, Eddie. She knows **_**him**_**. She's helped **_**him**_**."**_

Spider-Man. Just because they had a truce didn't mean Eddie had forgiven him, or ever would. And anyone allied with him was just as suspicious.

"I'm still not buying it. Why don't you get your _spider friend_ to do it for you?" he asked, crossing his arms and daring her to lie about it. Her expression didn't budge, though. If anything, it only solidified into a scowl.

"He's not my _friend_," she told him. "Even if he was, he doesn't… approve of my methods. And I'm not about to be held back again by a boy scout in spandex. If I'm going to be one of the good guys again, I'll be my _own_ kind."

If she was telling the truth, Eddie had to agree with that. And why would she lie?

...Well, for several hundred reasons.

"What if we don't trust you're only out to bring the scum down?" he accused. "Whenever you say one thing, you're always been up to something else." He'd heard more than enough about her other 'alliances' to know this wouldn't be nearly as simple as she made it out to be. Hell, he still remembered the first time she showed up in the Bugle so long ago (and how it took those morons a whole year to trace a prison breakout from before she'd gone public back to her). One second she'd be fleeing the spider, the next she'd be caught fighting alongside him. She was as dark a horse, well, a cat, as you could get.

And her persistent grin only made her look darker. "Put it this way, Eddie. I could have just followed you every night without you knowing and got what I want that way. At least this way you know I'm being honest."

On one hand he hated the suggestion that he wouldn't have noticed being tailed by someone else in a skintight suit. On the other… she had a point. Not even the symbiote could find fault with that.

"So, you get your revenge on the other bosses and get to be a hero again. What else is in it for us, other than this 'story' you're promising?"

Felicia shrugged, plumes of white burying her neck briefly. "A sense of moral righteousness and justice. I know you symbiote types are big on that. And there's more candy where that came from."

"_**More candy, Eddie**_!" the symbiote squealed.

'_You just said you didn't trust her!'_

"_**Candy takes no sides,"**_ it assured_._ "_**Candy would never betray us."**_

Lesson learned- Klyntar were terrible at negotiations.

As Eddie argued silently with his other, Felicia made one last bid. "If you're reluctant because you're scared I'll steal your glory, rest assured that you'll still be the one doing all the heavy lifting." She leapt to her feet, shamelessly showing off when she could have just stood up and now standing next to him, "In fact, that's why you were my first choice for this little scheme. Unless, of course, these muscles are just for show…" She touched him, the very edge of her claw tracing one of the lines between his bicep muscles. He froze, more surprised than threatened by his personal space bubble being pierced so easily. The symbiote didn't push her away either. She'd reached the inside of his elbow by the time he realised she was waiting for him to speak.

"...We'll think about it."

Finally satisfied, Felicia let him ago. As soon as her finger retreated he exhaled, not realising he'd been holding his breath the whole time.

"I'll be back same time tomorrow," she promised over her shoulder as she stalked towards the incriminatingly open window.

"I'll have a window lock by then," he warned.

"Don't bother." She crouched on the windowsill to look back at him. "I'll just break it." She fell back into the night, and it swallowed her whole.

Eddie stared after her, at the empty air where she'd hung for just a second, wondering if he could see plumes of white fur being carried on the wind. He sighed as he closed it before she could come barging in again.

"Well, _you_ were helpful," he said sarcastically to the symbiote hanging on his shoulder.

"_**If you'd bought a Snickers like I said, I wouldn't have been so hungry,"**_ it protested_._


	2. Night 2

Felicia kept her promise of arriving at the same time the next night, and wasn't surprised to see Venom already waiting for her on the rooftop. Even with his immense size, he was almost unnoticeable in the dark until you went up close and saw patches of the black shifting around, catching the moonlight. He wasn't really that much bigger than Eddie was normally, and it took a lot more than big muscles to scare her. In fact, they usually just did the exact opposite for her.

He eyed her as she vaulted up the building to stand before him, looming over here even when he was hunched over. She eyed him back, her gaze favouring his chest, and whether or not he noticed didn't make his growls any louder or softer.

"**We've decided,"** he announced.

Felicia smiled, already knowing what his answer was. Venom dragged his tongue thickly over his fangs, coating them in a sheen of fresh saliva as he huffed. It wasn't quite a grin like hers, more like a grimace. Showing his teeth to the alpha.

"**Whatever it is you're really up to," **he said, "**we'll get you to whoever you need to see. On two conditions." **He held up his claws to count them off, the huge talons slicing through the air.

"**One: no innocents harmed. If we find out these targets of yours haven't done anything-"**

Felicia rolled her eyes, forever weary of the moral compass of every man she knew always pointing to 'boring'. "They're as far from innocent as you can get," she assured. "Don't treat me like _I'm_ the psycho villain here, Eddie."

Venom growled, the white of one eye bulging as if an eyebrow was cocking under it. Drool oozed from one corner of his maw.

"**Very well. As for two…"** His mouth yawned wide, and for just a second Felicia thought it was about to clamp down on her head. But it didn't close again, it only fell back further until the teeth retracted into the black ooze and the throat simply vanished, replaced by a human head with black tendrils retreating through his hair. It was as if Venom had regurgitated Eddie, who now stood looking at her, his stern scowl severely undercut by his next demand.

"I get to use your shower," he said.

Felicia blinked, and blinked again. No, he was really serious. "What?!"

"You've seen my apartment, Cat," Eddie answered, only slightly embarrassed. "The bathroom barely fits in the toilet and sink."

"Then how the hell have you been bathing this whole time?!" Felicia was hissing to keep her voice down, before shaking her head in defeat and disgust. "Actually, I don't want to know. Fine. If it gets you onboard and stops me having to smell you."

She thought it was a fair enough deal, but Eddie looked like she'd just slapped him. "I don't smell!" he insisted, furrowing his eyebrows. "...Do I?"

Felicia hit him back with a similar look, deadpan dripping through her voice. "Honey, you hang out in the sewers."

Eddie looked like he was about to argue, before he looked away for a second and he pouted.

"...Point taken. Can I use it right now, then?"

"No. I have a lead." Felicia leapt down to the lower roof, forcing Eddie to vault after her just to keep up.

"**Already?"** he asked, the symbiote seizing his vocal cords as it flooded back over his head. Felicia looked back as she reached the edge of the unbroken line of rooftops, watching his white eyes settle back into place. It was almost entrancing, how such intricate details could just emerge out of the blank black slime, like they were bubbling up from a thick stew.

"I knew you'd say yes, so I've been tailing an old contact all day," Felicia said. "He'll be our starting point." She surveyed the landscape below them, the city intersection that still bustled and blared with traffic this late in the evening. She had arrived at his apartment from the same side of the street, but where they had to be was far on the other side.

'_Dammit, Eddie, did you have to live in one of the busiest neighbourhoods in New York?'_ First kneeling down, she straightened up to try and judge the distance between where they both stood and the towering buildings across from them. If she was alone she might have risked leaping across the stoplights, or going a little higher to find a telephone line hanging over the road. But she had to accomodate for a much larger, much less stealthy partner now.

A partner who could shoot weblines. And, unlike with a certain spider, she wouldn't have to worry about slipping off.

"Think you can get us over to the Bowery without being seen?" Felicia asked Venom, who answered with a snort that rippled through his whole body.

"**We don't think,"** he boomed out. "**We **_**know **_**we can. Climb on."**

Though she wasn't excited by the thought of sticking to the goo on his back, at least she wouldn't be straining herself to hold on. He knelt down so she could find purchase around his shoulders, pushing her feet off of his thighs for leverage. He was smoother than she was expecting, like black vinyl shimmering under her gloved hands. Almost like her own suit. It wasn't until her arms were wrapped tightly around his neck that the vinyl surged, latching onto her wrists to secure her properly to him. Her waist was also captured by thin black tendrils, lashing her to his back. Felicia shivered as she felt the symbiote squirming over her, trying not to remember what Lee Price's hold on her felt like.

"Just don't get any of it in my hair," she teased, throwing her head sideways so her white tresses wouldn't get caught in the ooze. She felt Venom rumble beneath her.

"**We're sure that's a common worry for you," **he said back. Before she had a chance to realise the joke, he anchored a webline high up and jumped from the roof, swinging them both high over the intersection.

It had been a long time since she'd last been on a web trip through the city… ever since Peter threw her aside. She'd almost forgotten the rush, the sensation of her whole body falling after her stomach as it dropped out from beneath her, the way her nerves jolted as she was hauled back upwards in an arc through the air… and how damn cold it was (just as well she'd padded the important parts of her suit).

With Venom, with Eddie carrying her, it was the exact same feeling… but different. Better, even. Though the symbiote covering him seemed to move like a thick, viscous mass, Felicia could feel his huge muscles flexing under her as if they were bare, just as distinctly as the cold wind blasting through her hair with each swing. She could feel the immense effort it took to carry himself across the city, but he barely broke a sweat. He wasn't even breathing hard. He wasn't breathing at all, save for some huffs of cold air that puffed in front of his fangs. Felicia was impressed, but she scolded herself at getting too distracted. From how the buildings flashing by them changed, she knew they were almost there.

"Little bit lower, big guy," she said in his ear, having to yell over the rush of air wailing around them. "We're getting close."

"**Just who is this contact of yours?"** Venom bellowed back, letting his weblines go longer so they slowly slipped closer to the ground.

"I'll tell you when we see him," she insisted. The last thing Felicia needed was Venom going charging after him before she laid out her plan. She'd learned a thing or two from the last time she had to work with him, back when Carnage turned New York into his personal slaughterhouse; only give him what he absolutely needed to know at that moment in time.

Venom just grunted, following her directions as his swings got slower and lower, until he landed them both on another flat roof directly across from an empty yard surrounded by taller buildings. Only one of them had a sign, labelling it as a jewelry store. The only way in and out was a narrow alleyway to the north. Once Felicia dismounted from Venom's back she pointed towards that alley, and just a few moments later a shape skulked out of its shadows. It was a fairly unremarkable silhouette, apart from the jagged circles sticking out of it.

"There he is," she whispered. "Real name is Keith Kraft, but he calls himself the Ringer." That wasn't entirely accurate: he only called himself that cause the guy whose gear he bought also called himself that. He only kept the name because he felt like he had to, and because he thought it gave him more street cred.

From how Venom had to fight not to laugh, this Ringer had clearly thought wrong. "**Scary,"** he deadpanned through a toothy grin.

"When he was with me," she went on, "he used up over half of his takings on protection from other criminals." She watched her pitiful former partner slink against the wall towards the tiny jewelry store. "So, either he's found someone else to work for, or he's grown some balls and struck out on his own. You can tell which one I think is more likely."

Venom growled in agreement. "**Just what are you expecting us to get out of him?" **he asked, something rolling under the white patches of his eyes as the Ringer resorted to breaking the front door with a flat disk in his hand to get inside.

"Anything he knows," Felicia answered. "Just ask him who he's working for when he comes back out. Scare it out of him. I cut the alarm earlier, so his guard will be down."

"**And what'll you be doing while we're grinding his face into the asphalt?"**

She shrugged, sending up plumes of fluff from around her chest. "Keeping watch. Admiring the show. And I guess I'll tag in if he gives you any trouble…"

Venom creased his eyes, but his attention wasn't on her anymore. The Ringer had made his heist, and now he was trying to close the door behind him amidst the crunch of broken glass under his boots.

"**Somehow we doubt that he will." **Venom laughed behind his grin as he crawled down the wall, sticking to its shadows and almost dripping down to the ground. Felicia stuck around to see Venom creeping up behind the sad excuse for a thief, who didn't notice him at all as he snickered to himself. Then she retreated higher up by digging her claws into the brickwork, knowing the Ringer would hardly think to look anywhere but right in front of him.

"Things are really looking up for you now, Keith!" He was practically beaming with glee as he checked inside his haul bag, still not knowing who loomed behind him. "No alarm, no witnesses and no spiders for once!"

As hilarious as Felicia thought it all was, Venom must not have liked being ignored. "**Don't be so sure about that.**"

Keith yelped so loud that it might as well have been an alarm going off, and almost sent his haul scattering across the ground as his arms spasmed. "Venom?! The hell, man? I-I was here first, I got dibs on this place!" He was trying to stand up to the beast before him, with very little success. Felicia almost felt bad for him. All it took was a saliva-laced growl to send him scurrying against the door at his back.

"**Is that so?" **Venom asked.

"Uh… y-yeah, so… s-so beat it! Or else I'll freeze that slime solid all around you!"

It was tragic. It truly was. Felicia was about to see an old friend get horribly murdered. She leaned in closer from her perch for a better look.

"**A bold strategy," **Venom praised. She could hear his teeth grinding from afar, in preparation for the meal. "**How do you plan on doing that?"**

"Like _this_!" Keith shot one of his hands out, a disk loaded into one of the contraptions around his wrist. Felicia had seen it many times before, used against bank guards and unwary clerks and the less 'super' of the heroes. Sometimes it even worked on them.

This was not one of those times. It backfired- literally, it shot the ring back in his own face as it broke right through the casing of his gauntlet. Felicia hissed, expecting to see his face crack apart under a cover of ice. But all the disk gave him was a bruise over his nose. Even when his weapons broke, they still didn't work right.

Venom cocked his head, watching Keith rub at his nose. "**Is that all?"**

"Uh… u-uh, I…" Keith hunched over, as if he'd just been overcome with cramps. Felicis recognised it as him trying to activate the mechanisms dotted all over his suit, but these ones refused to fire at all. Then he started jabbing at his other wrist, a trapped whine of terror and confusion slowly squeezing out of him.

"W-why aren't the others working?!" he pleaded to himself, doused in panic as well as slobber as Venom laughed at him.

"**Not really much of a 'ringer' after all, are you, Keith?" **

Keith gulped, falling to his knees and holding out his bag over his head. "T-take whatever you want, man, I-I was… I was j-just gonna pawn it all anyway…"

"**Whatever we want?"** Venom shoved Keith's meagre offering away with a single swipe of his huge claws. "**Well, we **_**were**_ **looking for a snack to tide us over… your lungs will do nicely."**

"N-no, no, no! Please, I-I-I need those!"

"**Not for much longer, I assure you. Unless you tell us why you're **_**really**_ **here."** Venom closed in on him, cornering him against the door. Felicia couldn't see him anymore, but she could hear his screams loud enough.

"NO! NO NO NO! I-I… p-please… d-don't…"

They trailed off, but there was no squish of his head being crushed between jaws, no splatter of blood. In fact, there was only silence for a few long seconds before Venom called out.

"**Um… Felicia? Your friend seems to have passed out."**

Felicia sighed. And she'd thought it was going so well… she jumped back down to join Venom in the yard, and saw Keith slumped in the doorway with glass shards scattered around his comatose body.

"Nice one, Eddie. He'll be _real_ useful drooling all over the concrete."

"**You said to scare him,"** Venom pointed out, crossing huge arms over an even larger chest. "**Not our fault he's so attached to his organs."**

Felicia rolled her eyes as she squatted to examine Keith while he was out. She started with the gauntlet on his left arm, the one that had backfired. The whole thing was ripped apart, the firing mechanism firmly jammed as she pressed a claw into it. The right was just as stiff, but intact and far more advanced than she remembered it being. From that, she could draw one obvious conclusion.

"Hm. He's definitely working for someone."

"**What makes you so sure now?" **Venom asked as she stood up again.

"His gear. It's been upgraded. He didn't have anything like this when he was on my payroll, and he couldn't have afforded it without robbing something a lot bigger than an jewelry store."

"**If it's as fancy as you say, how come it literally blew up in his face?"**

Felicia hummed to herself, then knelt down again to reach for the ring that had smacked into Keith's nose. It was heavier than it looked, and its surface was lined with mysterious grooves. She was sure that they interacted with the firing mechanisms somehow, but for now they only lay flat on the ring.

"I can't tell what all these electronics do," she confessed, "but if I had to guess what happened… say he got given this stuff by someone. An employer, maybe."

Venom huffed. "**Okay. So what?"**

"So you've got this volatile, unpredictable villain running around with _your _expensive toys. Surely you'll be tracking him somehow, to make sure he doesn't get carried away with them. And when he inevitably _does_, you flick the off switch so it doesn't get traced back to you."

Venom cocked his head, and nodded. "**Clever. But if this employer is so smart, why'd they trust a clown like this with this stuff in the first place?"**

"Cause they don't _have _to trust him. They just need someone who'll do anything for money." The Keith that Felicia knew certainly fit that bill.

"**I assume you speak from experience.**" Venom didn't phrase it as a question that needed an answer, but Felicia gave one anyway through a proud smile.

"Of course." She looked back at Keith, now noticing with distaste and a severe scrunch of her nose that he'd soiled himself. "I think we should call it a night. Leave him here for the cops. We don't want whoever's hiring him to know someone's onto them."

Venom furrowed his eyes, glaring them at her as she pushed past. "**Seriously? Only one criminal and you're saying that's good enough for one night?"**

Felicia patted one of his biceps. "I like the enthusiasm, Eddie, but we need to start out slow. If we hit too many of them at once, they'll just go even deeper underground."

"**Sounds like an excuse for laziness to us,**" Venom snarled.

Felicia gave an exaggerated shrug, spreading her claws out as she sauntered off without him. "Guess you don't want that shower, then," she called over her shoulder, just waiting to hear his heavy footsteps behind her.

"**You're a cruel woman, Felicia,"** he told her as she returned to the safety of the rooftops.

She winked down at him. "I try to be."


	3. Night 2 Part 2

It was hardly the first time Felicia had lead a man to her apartment in the middle of the night, especially one who could swing himself after her across the rooftops. But it was a first time for _this_ apartment, the only one she could find on such short notice after losing everything. It was modest- by her standards, at least- and rented under one of her many aliases. She perched on the windowsill while she opened the lock. Not with a key. She didn't need one.

"**What is it with you and windows?"** Venom asked, leaning over the edge of the roof above her to watch.

"Don't like using front doors," she answered. "Too obvious. And neighbours tend to be nosy."

Nosy _and_ bored, listening for every creak in the hallways. In the cheaper neighbourhoods that was to be expected, just as it was to be expected that their door locks wouldn't always work and that not many of them had a safe to throw what little valuables they had into. Even if they did, Felicia could crack it in a few seconds. As easily as opening a lock… she pushed against the glass to slip inside her bedroom.

"I recommend you slim down a little if you want to fit through," she said to Venom as he clambered down the building wall after her. He snorted, the echo of his growl fading as the symbiote pulled back from his skin, and then pulled his body through. He'd shed his Venom guise by the time she closed the window and turned the light on. If you didn't know the man had an alien on him, you'd have just assumed he wearing a plain black shirt and jeans. But Felicia could see how the 'fabric' rippled as it settled into place, clinging just a little too tightly to his chest…

She stopped herself from staring by retreating behind a dressing screen (she didn't steal it; she just bought it with stolen money. Big difference).

"Shower's through that door," she called out, pointing from behind the screen as she pulled the zipper of her suit down and eased her mask off. "Towels are in the closet. Don't touch anything else."

"Not even soap?" Eddie asked it as a joke, but flatly enough that he wouldn't have if she said yes. Felicia rolled her eyes while she pulled her gloves off, putting them over the top of the screen.

"Assuming you even know how to use it," she fired back.

"Just cause I don't have my own shower doesn't mean I forgot how to," Eddie said defensively. He really was so easy to antagonise- unlike Peter, who'd either fire back a quip of his own or go on a lecture to her. Felicia just smiled to herself as she undressed, extracting herself from the tight leather of her suit and pulling her boots off until she was down to her underwear. As she stored the suit away on a hanger, she thought back to a question she'd asked earlier that night. Despite what curiosity usually did to cats, she ended up giving into it as she pulled

her pajamas on.

"How _do _you keep clean without a shower?"

"Symby usually takes care of it for me," he answered.

"Symby?"

"The… symbiote, I mean," he corrected, his voice going quieter. He must have been embarrassed by the slip-up.

"You have a nickname for it. That's adorable. It really is." Even if Eddie would have taken it as mockery, Felicia knew she was being serious. But Eddie didn't even scoff.

"Good that you think so," he said, "cause I'll need to leave it here with you."

"What?" Felicia scowled as she quickly gathered her hair into a ponytail. "Why?"

"Well… cause it's my clothes. And alien slime doesn't do well in water."

By the time Felicia had made herself presentable again and emerged from behind the screen, Eddie had already disappeared into the bathroom and left a pile of ooze at the foot of her bed.

"Play nice, you two," he called out, his voice echoing off the tiles just before it was overtaken by the hiss of water falling. Why did she even agree to this in the first place?

"Stay away from my good soap!" she ordered through the door. Technically, all of them were her good ones, but some were better than others. Not that Eddie would have been able to tell. But if he so much as looked at her sandalwood…

There was a gurgle behind her. Felicia sighed as she faced her _other _guest. The symbiote sat coiled on her bed, like a black puddle with white eyes floating on its surface. She had the feeling that it would strike at her if she came too close, like a viper. But it was her damn bed, so she'd do as she pleased.

"So… Symby." She sat next to it, pulling one of her legs up onto the mattress. The symbiote pulled back to stop itself sinking into the indent her weight made, clinging to her bedsheets with tiny tendrils. The eyes stared up at her, and she tried not to think too much about them. The last time she'd been this close to a symbiote, it had tried to hijack her brain. Speaking of which...

"Y'know, that clone of yours was a real pain in the ass," she said. "How much of that came from you?"

There was a hiss from Symby as it surged up, like a snake puffing itself up in front of danger. It even bared a thin pink tongue at her, wiggling it like it was threatening to lick her to death.

"I'm kidding, slimy," Felicia laughed. "Calm down."

Symby hissed at her again, but it was a more feeble sound this time, more of a warning than a threat. Then it curled back into itself, burrowing into a hole of its own body and moving its eyes so they were facing her, narrower than before.

'_It's actually kind of cute_,' Felicia thought.

"_**I appreciate the sentiment**_."

Then she jumped, almost falling off her bed. It was a voice in her head, but also not quite inside it. More like she was hearing a distant echo. She'd heard something very similar to it not long ago, when Lee Price had her under his control. How his symbiote had spoken to him, and also to her. Coring its way into both of their skulls. She gulped, staying on the edge of the bed as she watched the symbiote across from her.

"...Are you talking to me?"

It blinked at her, and spoke again from a hidden mouth_. _"_**It would seem so."**_

She blinked back at it, several times in succession. "H… How is that possible?" she asked, brushing a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

"_**Your temporary bond with my clone opened up a communication path between you and I as well." **_Symby dribbled towards her across the sheets, resting just below her knee. "_**I can open and close it as I wish."**_

Even though it was literally just a pile of goop, Felicia couldn't help but feel like the alien was patronising her. "Right… okay. You can read my thoughts as well?"

"_**Some of them. Only those that you don't try to hide."**_

That wasn't exactly reassuring. Wouldn't trying to hide a thought just make it even more obvious? Maybe Symby had said that precisely so it could sense anything she tried to bury. Felicia shook her head and looked to the bathroom door, lowering her voice when she turned back to Symby.

"Does Eddie know?"

"_**Not yet. I will tell him if he needs to." **_

Felicia didn't want to know why Symby felt like it had to keep that a secret, and this time she fought off the creep of curiosity with claws with claws out. She'd planned out dealing with Eddie well enough that she knew she could handle him, but she hadn't factored in that the symbiote had its own agenda. Eddie might have been Venom, but Venom was not also Eddie.

"_**There is a reason I've opened this path, Felicia Hardy." **_Symby slithered, forcing her attention on it as it dragged its body behind itself, rising up so its eyes hovered over her thigh. The tongue darted out again between those narrow whites. "_**I want to know why you've chosen Eddie."**_

Felicia tried not to flinch. "I told you already. It was his idea in the first place, and I need a big strong man like him to keep suspicion off of me."

It growled, tilting its snake-like head. "_**No, that's not it. There's something else. You can't hide it from me."**_

It bloomed those whites at her, interrogating her. Accusing her. She could feel it wanting to probe at her nerves to coax the memories out of neurons.

"No. I guess I can't," she confessed, crossing her arms over her chest. She half-wished the symbiote would just go into her brain and see the answer for itself, ignoring how her skin prickled at the thought. Dammit, it was too late at night to be getting dissected by alien ooze. She sighed as she tried to piece together an argument out of what she was willing to admit.

"After the Five Families incident, I… well, I lost everything. Again." She shrugged. "And I realised that maybe treating everyone who helped me up until now like they were disposable, like they only existed to help me… maybe it wasn't the smartest thing to do. I'd spent so long thinking I was invincible, that I was more an icon than a person, when I came falling down from it all, I… I didn't know what to do. But then you and Eddie gave me that idea, of being a hero. It was all I really had left to work towards. I just didn't really know where to start."

Symby didn't take its eyes off her as it cocked its head again, a low wet sound leaving it. "_**Why not go to the spider?" **_

Felicia rolled her eyes again. "He's not the kind of hero I want to be."

Symby was quiet for a moment. "_**I don't understand,"**_ it admitted.

"Put it this way," Felicia said, rearranging her legs before they went numb. "For the longest time, I thought I only had one source of good in my life. That there was only one person who kept trying and trying to get me to change, to be more like him. I never thought about why. Maybe because he seriously thought I could, or just cause he liked the challenge. I don't know. I never really took it seriously."

She paused for a moment, shaking her head as she remembered. "And then, one day... it's like he's a completely different person. Like he never gave a shit about me to begin with. When he left me behind, I thought… what was the point in trying to be like him? Just walking the line between good and bad? What was it that made _him_ a hero, that made him so much better than me or anyone else? Why did he have to be the _good _one, and me the bad one? He's not a saint anymore than I am. So why should I feel bad that I can't be like him?"

She inhaled deeply when she finally stopped her rant to breathe, releasing her hands from the tight fists they'd made as she vented. Her long nails left dents in her palms, and she threaded her fingers together as she sighed. How long had she been holding that in for? However long it was, now that it was out she could breathe a lot easier. Like a vice grip had just been released from around her ribs.

"Peter sees everything he can as just black and white, but you and Eddie… you know firsthand that it's not that simple." It was beautifully ironic, really. The ones dressed in black and white were the only ones who could see the world in greyscale. Symby still looked at her, waiting for

her to truly finish her answer.

"You really wanna know why I chose Eddie? Cause I can tell that he wants to do good. _Real _good, not just beating up a few goons every night. Even though he's done bad in the past, he's trying to set it right. And I figured we could help each other out with that." Felicia shrugged once again. It was becoming a habit.

"_**...Interesting."**_ Symby tasted the air again, dragging its tongue through it before the line of pink disappeared back into the black.

"You think I'm lying?" Felicia asked.

"_**No. I'd know if you were**_**."**

She crossed her legs underneath her as she leaned in to the symbiote. "Then relax. I'm not gonna hurt your golden boy."

As if she even could. Even without a symbiote on him and with some years of experience on her, Eddie was way out of her weight class. Symby must have known that, yet it still saw her as some kind of threat.

If only she could see what it was thinking...

A voice rang out, but it wasn't in her head this time. "Why are your towels so damn big? You could hide a body with these things!"

"Maybe that's precisely _why_ they're so big," Felicia called out to the bathroom door. He sure liked to take his time in there, taking almost as long as she did. Maybe she should have made him keep the door open...

"_**There is another reason I wanted to talk to you," **_Symby revealed, slithering behind her so it now lay on her other side_. _"_**I wanted to… apologise. For attacking you**_**."**

"Hm?" Felicia didn't know what it was talking about at first, though her nose throbbed slightly.

"_**It was a long time ago. Eddie doesn't like remembering it. I made him do it."**_ It ducked its head to hide its eyes, as if it was ashamed_. "__**We thought you were working with the spider back then. We were… unwell."**_

Ah. She remembered now. The very first time she'd seen Venom, and the first time Peter had abandoned her. Funny how often those times crossed over. Her nose had healed after a few weeks, though her pride took a lot longer to recover. She wasn't sure if it even did.

"But you're better now?" she asked.

"_**We take medicine. It helps**_**."**

She never thought she'd feel bad for alien slime before. Then again, she never thought she'd be asking Venom for help without Spidey around to keep him in check.

"Well. Apology accepted. I'm tougher than I look, anyway."

"_**We know. It's why Eddie agreed to help you**_**."**

Before Felicia could launch her own interrogation on that, the man himself emerged from the bathroom. Well, his hand did.

"Could use some clothes over here, Symby."

The symbiote went to him like a shadow flitting across the floor, leaping onto his fingers and spreading up across his arm until it was out of sight. After a few seconds he opened the door fully, instantly redressed. His face was flushed from the humid heat and his hair still damp, some of it falling across his forehead, but Felicia couldn't help but wonder at the improvement. He didn't look that different, but his expression told her how much better he must have felt.

"You scrub up nicely, Brock. Literally."

Eddie had been watching Symby form the finer details of his clothes, and when he looked at Felicia he had to do a double take. Must not have expected to see her in pajamas. More men had probably seen her totally naked than like this. With that in mind, Felicia barely suppressed a snort of laughter. Eddie cleared his throat as he looked away, trying too late to mask his obvious surprise.

"So… do all your nighttime visitors leave through the window or should I use the door for a change?" he asked.

"Go get some sleep, Eddie. Tomorrow night will be a lot more eventful, I'm sure." As Felicia stood up to open the window for him, she was sure she smelt lavender from the bathroom. Not one of her good soaps, but it still smelt good.

"Here's hoping it is," Eddie said back, climbing onto the windowsill and looking back at her. "In the meantime, I think I have a story to write." He pulled himself through with ease, probably sticking to the wall outside and descending to the street to make his way home. Felicia closed her window again, catching something in the gentle night wind just before she did, not just the lingering smell of lavender.

"I don't usually smell, do I?"

"_**I don't have a nose, Eddie**_**."**

"Right. Sorry."

She rolled her eyes- another habit she was starting to form- before double checking the lock and sleeping in stolen sheets.


	4. Night 3

"**Our boss liked the Ringer story,"** Venom told Felicia around a mouthful of chocolate. "**Was impressed we managed to write it so soon after his arrest." **

"Good to hear." Felicia had saved some of the bar for herself, popping a single square into her mouth. That she was able to resist taking any more must have been a superpower as far as Venom was concerned. "But from what I've heard," she said, "he didn't spend very long in a cell."

"**Hrmph?" **Venom swallowed, the dopamine flood in his skull being flushed out by a wave of anger. Did he really escape that quickly?! They should have just bitten his head off while he was down and slurped up his skull-

'_Behave yourself, Symby_.'

"_**Sorry, Eddie."**_ The symbiote rippled across his shoulders with guilt as Venom released his clenched fist, then it filled in the gaps the talons had made in his palm.

"Turns out someone paid his bail today," Felicia said, deaf to the scolding going on in Venom's head. "Someone by the name of Mason Banks."

Venom snorted. "**Sounds familiar…"**

"More like a fake name to me. So I looked it up, and found out it's apparently the same name of a former Alchemax executive."

"**Alchemax?" **Venom eyes swelled as the eyebrows hidden beneath them shot upwards, and the skin underneath prickled.

"Yeah. Looks like we'll have to pay them another 'friendly visit'." Felicia seemed eager for a second chance to break into their tower.

"**If they're working with criminals, we'd much rather it was **_**un**_**friendly," **Venom snarled back. Ever since he first got involved with them, he'd feared that he'd inevitably come across yet another experiment or operation of theirs gone wrong. Hopefully this time wouldn't involve dinosaurs.

Felicia cocked an eyebrow at his burst of fury.

"Good to see we're on the same page. As for getting in there… it's gonna be a little more difficult than last time." She threw a thumb over her shoulder towards the tower that dominated this part of the city's skyline; Alchemax Tower. Symby hissed at the sight of it.

"**What makes you say that?" **Venom asked. Truthfully, he didn't actually know how she'd gotten inside the last time. He had been inside many times before... but it was usually through the front door. And Felicia didn't do front doors, not even to places she was allowed to be in.

"Even if that doctor friend of yours kept his mouth shut about our visit to the vaults, someone will have eventually noticed there was a break-in," Felicia said. "So we'll need a different route in this time… I'm thinking the roof."

Venom followed her gaze up to the very top of the tower. From the ground it didn't seem that big compared to New York's other buildings, but Eddie had seen the view from the top floor. Just standing there, not swinging or flying or soaring from weblines, it was only then that he noticed just how small everyone else was. That perspective explained a lot about Liz Allan, he'd thought when he first met her. He'd only had to actually force his way into the building that first time, and it had been during the day while hauling their huge, scaly property behind him. When Felicia was with him, she made her own way in while he took the easy route through the reception with the excuse of needing to see someone.

He didn't have anything to protect him from security this time, nothing up his sleeve or an urgent matter to be seen to. If anything, breaking in right now would be even more dangerous than back then. If he got caught… they might cut him loose. No more cure for Symby.

Back to eating brains. Flossing with spinal cords. Eddie shivered.

"**We can get you up there," **Venom growled. "**But we'll need to do some planning if we don't want to get caught. A few days, at least."**

Felicia frowned. "We can't wait that long. It has to be tonight. Ringer's already in there."

Once again, Venom's eyes spread apart like the black around them was eroding away. "**How the hell do you know that?"**

She smiled, red lips matching the crescent shape of the moon perched above them. "Remember what I said about a boss wanting to keep track of their volatile, unpredictable employees? I know cause I got a tracer put on him a while back, when I thought he was thinking of finding another gang. I was gonna have him lead me to whoever else was hiring him, so it looks like I planned well in advance."

Venom took a moment to absorb the new information, symbiote and human brain both synchronising as they processed it. Symby always thought just a little bit faster, though.

"**That's why he was your first target?"** Venom asked.

"I did warn him once he'd have a 'valuable purpose'," Felicia answered, her smile growing into a scarlet grin. Despite his misgivings, Venom matched it.

"**You're smarter than you look, Cat."**

"I'll be inclined to say the same about you once you get us in that tower," she said, gesturing to it once again.

Venom glared at the building from afar, wondering just how close New York came to destruction because of stupid, greedy decisions made within those walls. Those walls, those halls that he himself had walked down, just to beg for Liz Allan's help even as she let monsters she helped create run free through his city. Maybe she only helped him, the monster with a conscience, to ease her own guilty one. If she was really working with actual villains, the actual monsters, he was certain that was the case.

"_**We don't owe them anything, Eddie,"**_ Symby whispered_._ "_**Not like we'll be taking anything. Not anything that they'll miss."**_

Eddie didn't have any qualms about breaking in for the answers he and Felicia needed. He just didn't know how the hell to do it.

"**Alright. We'll get you up there," **Venom told her. "**And we'll get you inside, if you can find a way."**

Felicia blinked, and placed her hand on her chest in a mockery of shock. "'_If_ I can find a way'? Eddie, I'm hurt that you think I couldn't."

For once, Venom was glad for her confidence. He knelt down, signalling her to ride his back again, and set off toward the tower in the distance once she was secure. He glued her wrists to his body with the symbiote for both of their sakes- she was so light that if she slipped off, he might not even notice. And the risk would be even greater when they were vertical, scaling the side of the tower and praying no one was looking through any windows he crawled across. At least she didn't seem to mind the stickiness. If anything, she seemed to take it as a comfort while he carried them both across the roofs, digging her boots into his hips.

Venom aimed for the tallest structure that wasn't the tower itself, driving his claws into the bricks as he launched himself up. He'd need to shoot his webline as far up the tower as he could reach, and use it to vault himself up its wall and quickly climb the rest of the way to the roof.

Once he had his vantage point, he took the leap of faith and leeched Symby towards the very tip of the tower. The line fell, still slack as they started to plummet- did it miss? Did it snap under both their weights? He was running out of time to try again, but- no, yes! The line went taut, and on the swing Venom let go just before he slammed into the tower, skidding down it to dissipate his leftover momentum before finally stopping about halfway up from the ground far below.

Strapped to his back, Felicia barely flinched. She had no idea how close they had came to being splattered. But, then again, how could she know? Venom huffed, gathering his strength before beginning the ascent. Though the building was mostly windows, he was able to scale them without even sliding. The only thing he had to worry about was scratching the glass with his claws. Once he could see the edge of the roof above him, he shot out a line and pulled himself up the rest of the way, landing on the roof on all fours. The whole journey took less than five minutes.

"Sometimes I think you're just showing off," Felicia said, dismounting and shaking off the symbiote tendrils that still clung to her fur.

"**You'd know best what showing off looks like." **Venom remained crouched near the edge of the roof, while the symbiote unspooled from around its host to spread itself out around the flat space. Half of it was taken up by a room with a single heavy door set into the walls, while the rest was reserved for ventilation and fans and… cameras, mounted from struts that reached up even higher into the sky.

Eddie had their lenses blotted out by splashes of ink while tendrils slipped under the door to make sure nothing was on the other side; so much of the symbiote in use that there was hardly any left to cover the host. Eddie picked a bad day to not wear layers… he tried to ignore the wind chill around his bare chest and arms this high up as he watched Felicia kneel before the door.

"Multi-million dollar company yet they can't afford a proper lock for the maintenance doors." She scoffed as she pulled out something from her suit. "Typical."

"Careful you don't trip an alarm," Eddie warned, straining to keep the symbiote over the defences he could see and shivering from the cold.

"They won't bother to rig anything this high up," Felicia assured, working her magic on the padlock bolted to the door. "Not when the latest break-in was so far below."

"Just make it quick. It's freezing up here…"

"You don't think I know that?" Felicia muttered. "I've got a skintight suit too. Only difference is mine can't bulk itself up."

Eddie cleared his throat, knowing full well just how tight Felicia's suit was. Just from looking at her, he'd have assumed it fit her better than Symby fit him. And she wasn't shy about it. She called him a show-off yet flaunted her figure every single night…

Why was that such a problem to him?

There was a click, and Felicia rose to her feet with the padlock in her hand. "Voilá-" Her smug look of victory was frozen, then swept away as soon as she faced him. It hadn't occurred to him that she wasn't expecting to him standing half naked behind her, but it did occur to him that her expression must have been the same as his when he saw her dressed in pajamas last night.

"...Eddie, do you not have _normal _clothes under that thing?" she asked, so incredulous that her voice almost cracked.

"Not… usually," he answered, looking everywhere other than her face.

"So, other than the alien, you just walk around naked everywhere?"

"I have underwear!" he protested. "It's just… hard finding clothes that fit me." Even when Symby didn't bulk him up, most shirts strained to fit over his muscles. "Now, if you're done judging my fashion choices, I'd like to get inside now."

Felicia kept staring at him, before shaking her head in lingering disbelief and pushing the door open. "After you, big guy."

Once the door was closed behind him, he was finally free from the cold, and finally able to release Symby from the cameras. It surged into him like one of his weblines zipping back to its source, and he let it settle on his skin as plain black clothing. Venom wasn't the appropriate look for sneaking around narrow hallways. There was a stairwell to his left, and he held Felicia back from descending it.

"Stay behind me," he whispered. "Let Symby scout ahead first." The symbiote did just that, detaching a tendril from Eddie and oozing against the wall, flat on its surface and it twisted down the stairs.

"You're quite the strategist, Eddie," Felicia whispered back. Almost as if he'd impressed her.

"Being forced to work for the FBI'll do that to you," he told her. That was about the only good thing the Bureau ever gave him, other than the chance to get Symby back.

"_**Can't see anything, Eddie," **_Symby reported. "_**No more cameras to cover."**_

Eddie nodded. "Coast seems to be clear." He released Felicia, who just rolled her eyes.

"Like I said. They'd save the heavy security for the lower levels." She lead the way down the stairs, and Eddie kept his voice muted just in case.

"Do you know where we should be going?" he asked.

"Of course." She dipped into her suit, which must have been lined with padded pockets to hold so much without even wrinkling it on her, and pulled out a tiny console. More like a watch without a strap, really, with a radar-like screen. "The tracer on Keith shows that he's somewhere on the floor below," she said.

"Somewhere," Eddie repeated skeptically as they reached the lower floor. "So are we supposed to just look through every room until we come across him?"

"Not every room." She slipped through the door in front of them, sticking to the wall as she slinked down the dark corridor ahead of them. "Just ones that look interesting. Like this one." She pressed her body into the door before Eddie even saw its outline in the wall, and he had to rush to follow her inside. The room ahead was as dark as the rest of the floor, but Eddie didn't trust that that it meant it was empty.

Keeping her to a plan was like… well, like trying to herd cats. But he felt like he would have preferred doing that over trying to stop this one from getting herself killed.

He didn't sense anyone inside… all he could see were filing cabinets lining the walls and carving avenues down the room. Felicia was already nosing through one of the drawers.

"Physical file copies." She sounded intrigued. "Primitive, but I won't complain."

Eddie had Symby guard the door as he walked behind her. "Think it's anything useful?"

"Probably not. They'll have all the sensitive files locked down on a computer. Might be worth a look anyway, though. Keith can wait."

Eddie frowned, trying to see what she was flicking through. It was too fast for him to read, but at least he could see they were all filed alphabetically.

"Maybe some files are _too _sensitive to keep on a computer that can be hacked," he suggested."

"Maybe," Felicia murmured, too absorbed in her search. "Check if you want. I know what I'm looking for."

Eddie wanted to ask what that was, but something told him she would just ignore the question. He didn't know how she could even read in such darkness. As it was, he was just anxious to get whatever they were here for and get the hell back out. The only light in the room was from the moon outside streaming through the blinds drawn over the window, and he had to stick to the cabinets near it so he could even see what he was looking at. D, E, F… he pulled out something that caught his eye. An incident report, from the day a certain someone tried to steal his symbiote right off of him, only to become completely poisonous to it. Eddie couldn't help but find it amusing, and reassuring. The only real threat to his bond with Symby was wiped out without him even having to do anything.

"How's Flash?" he asked, feigning a casual tone as he put the boy scout's file back where it was. The sound of papers being flicked through was paused, and he knew he'd gotten her attention.

"Why do you wanna know?" Felicia asked, also feigning her own kind of apathy.

"Bastard stole my symbiote _and _my anti-symbiote gig. I wanna know if he's planning to take anything else while he's on a roll. Not to mention, he almost burned me alive last year. He ever tell you about that?"

"_**He didn't mean to, Eddie**_," Symby argued, but by now it knew better than to share much about its time with 'Agent' Venom.

Felicia made a sound, and Eddie could see her smiling on the edge of the dim moonlight. "I don't talk to him much anymore," she said.

"...Yet you kissed him when he got you free of Maniac," he pointed out.

"How'd you hear about that?" She sounded just a little too defensive to play it off as surprise.

"Maniac saw it, so Symby saw it, so _I_ saw it," Eddie explained. That was the easy explanation, at least. Symby could only see flashes of its clone's perception when it wasn't bonded to anyone. Without a host as a distraction, its consciousness floated between its two selves. But Felicia didn't need to know all that. She just needed to know that he didn't buy her attempt at denial.

As he predicted, she shrugged. "Heat of the moment. You jealous?"

He scoffed. "Nothing to be jealous of."

"If you say so." Felicia went back to her searching in the dark, leaving Eddie floundering to justify himself in the wake of her skeptical tone.

"I just thought he'd have been your first choice for a team-up, is all. Other than Spider-Man."

"He's got the same problem as Spidey does," Felicia told him, with a hint of weariness. "Too inflexible. And not just in bed."

Eddie dropped the folder he'd just fished out. He really wished she'd stop catching him off guard like that… as he knelt down to pick it back up, Symby sent a barbed jolt across their bond.

"_**Someone's coming down the hall."**_

He snapped upright, shoving the cabinet closed and scanning the room for any quick exit. The window? No, would take too long to get the blinds out of the way-

"_**The air vent, in the ceiling," **_Symby said, instantly calling his attention to the fan opening above him. "_**Get inside and crawl down it." **_

Felicia had noticed his change in stance, and saw him looking to the vent as Symby pulled it down. Eddie stayed silent, gesturing with his head that she'd need to let him push her up into it. She nodded, and stepped into his hand as he boosted her up into the ceiling. The symbiote did the same for him, anchoring him inside and pulling the vent cover up behind him as he knelt in the pitch black space.

"_**This vent goes over the room across the hall,"**_ Symby hissed, pushing him to move forwards_. "__**I recognise it… Liz Allan's office. There's someone in there."**_

Eddie kept his advance slow, nudging Felicia in front of him until she got the idea. Her smaller size allowed her to go faster without noise, but up ahead he heard her gasp- just before it was muffled. He soon saw why, seeing light bleeding through a wide vent cover up ahead, looking down through it to the office below-

'_Is that…?'_

No one had seen him in public for years. But even then, he was unmistakable if you did see him. Stood at the door, owning the world with just a glare, was Norman Osborn.


	5. Night 3 Part 2

All was silent in the vent, and the office below. Eddie and Felicia stayed silent because they had to. Norman stayed silent because he was waiting for someone else to break it first, that 'someone else' likely being the Ringer. It was like a test, to see how long the other could resist saying anything. And it was failed within five seconds.

"Look, Mr Osborn," Keith stuttered, out of Eddie's line of sight but sounding pathetic enough that it was obvious it was him. "I-I know I broke the rules, I didn't mean to, I swear-"

"Really?" Norman's expression only moved just as much as it had to, his face frozen around his mouth and the utter disappointment that came out of it. "I thought the rules were quite simple. Simple enough that the only way you could break them is if you were _really_ trying to. That's why you got caught."

"I… I was gonna split the take with the others! I-I just thought… th-they could use some help with the... distraction side of things."

"That's what you thought, hm? Do I pay you to think, Keith? Or do I pay you to _do as you're told_?"

"_**There's something… wrong about Osborn, Eddie," **_Symby whispered_._ "_**Something dangerous… familiar. I don't like it."**_

Eddie didn't like it either, but he had to shush the symbiote so he could focus. It was hard enough when his skin was prickling just from being near him.

"The Eel will be making contact with the recruiters tomorrow," Norman said, moving out of sight _(_"_**Let me go down Eddie, let me see with my eyes,"**_ Symby asked, but Eddie hushed it again). "You'll be with him, and you will not disappoint me this time. Do I make myself clear?" A moment's pause, for what must have been a sullen nod.

"Good. Now get out of my sight." Then came the click of a hasty escape through the door, and the hiss of a heavy exhale in front of Eddie. Felicia's eyes glowed as they looked up at him, a light blue tinge around the irises that caught him off-guard, and she put a finger to her lips. The coast wasn't clear yet. Norman was still hanging around in the office, in _Liz Allan's_ office, for whatever reason. What did Osborn have to do with petty jewelry store heists? What did he have to do with Alchemax, for that matter? Symby couldn't give him any answers, and he couldn't even discuss it with Felicia with them both crammed stone-still into the vent. And they'd be stuck there until Norman left… or until they found an easy way out that wouldn't alert him.

'_Go on ahead without us,' _Eddie told the symbiote. '_See if you can find anything.' _

He felt it prickle in protest, squirming under his neck as it stubbornly clung to him, but before he could insist he saw Felicia's burning eyes flick down again. Heard the door opening again. Heard the voice he dreaded to recognise.

"Do you have to bring all your goons into _my_ office, Norman?" Liz asked from down below.

"_**Knew it! Knew we couldn't trust that woman, Eddie!" **_Symby was screeching in its whisper, thrumming along his brain stem. Eddie strained to subdue it; it was right to be angry, but it would have to wait until they were out of danger. And he had to concentrate. He had to see for himself what Liz had to do with all this. Luckily he hadn't missed much in trying to silence Symby.

"You won't let me have my own one," Norman pointed out, as Liz passed underneath where Eddie could see.

"I think Harry would notice if I did."

He heard Norman scoff over the creak of her chair as she sat at her desk. "Please. Last I heard he was too busy neglecting my grandchildren to spend much time in the company he gave up."

"If you're done insulting my family and making petty criminals wet themselves, I have reports to look over for _my_ company."

There was a pause in the mutual scorn being exchanged, and Eddie took full advantage of it.

'_Go,' _he told the symbiote, mouthing the order silently.

"_**Not happy about this,"**_ it gurgled.

'_I know. But we need you to find a way out for us.'_

Symby growled against his ear, but a few seconds later he felt it evaporate from his bloodstream and slide off his skin. He felt it retreating into the darkness ahead, leaving only a few molecules behind to root itself back to him. Its frustration ebbed away until all Eddie could feel were tiny jolts of it flitting from his nerve endings, keeping him alert as he heard Norman break the arctic silence.

"You're in contact with Venom, aren't you?" he asked.

"We have an arrangement with him," Liz answered coldly. "What about it?"

"He attacked one of my men last night." Eddie sucked in air through his nose, though he hadn't needed to breathe for months.

"He attacks _every_ criminal," Liz said, and he could almost see her eyes rolling. "It's what he does. Maybe if you didn't pick them all off the street, you'd have people who could actually fight him off."

"We've been over this, Liz. They don't need to be strong. They just need to do as they're told."

"And they're not even doing that," Liz countered. Eddie could practically feel the ice coming up from the room, stinging against his teeth.

Without so much as shivering, Norman sighed. Norman men might have been bowled over by it, sent shaking to their knees by his disapproval. "You say that as if you _want_ this all to fail."

"I don't want it to," Liz said without hesitation. "I just strongly suspect that it will."

"Remember what I told you, Liz. I know you're smart, despite marrying someone like Harry."

"If I was _really _smart, I wouldn't have agreed to any of this in the first place."

"I don't know why you're so adamant in your cynicism. We both want the same thing."

"What I want is you out of my family, and my building."

"_Other_ than that, I mean. This is about more than just Alchemax, which was _my_ company to begin with, in case you forgot. This is about all of New York City. About your family, _our_ family. About keeping them safe. Trust me to help you do that." It was a sales pitch plea, one that he must have preached several times before. Maybe to Liz, maybe to whoever else he'd roped into his league. But no matter how practiced it was, it was clear she didn't buy it.

"That's the main problem with your plan, Norman. I _don't_ trust you."

There was a sound that Eddie was almost scared to call a laugh. "You will, soon my love to Normie." The door opened, then closed, and the three people left behind all collectively released their held breath. Though Eddie had to take his in all over again, when Symby seeped back into him.

"_**I've scouted the vents ahead, Eddie,"**_ it said, still roiling with unease. "_**There's an exit on the far side of this floor, just outside another stairwell. I can lead the way."**_

'_Thanks, love.'_ Whatever would he do without Symby? He motioned to Felicia to move aside, as much as she could manage in the cramped space, and Symby emerged again as a black snake anchored to his chest. It flicked its head towards the sterile dark beyond, and Felicia nodded. She slowly crawled ahead, balancing her weight perfectly so not that even Eddie, just inches away, could hear anything. But she didn't go far before looking back, eyes still glowing a faint blue that highlighted the fur on her chest and the glint of her collar, silently asking why Eddie wasn't following. He waved her on ahead; she could go much faster than him while he was still trying to figure out how to not make the vent groan from his weight. Whatever part of Symby that wasn't leading them on could maybe line the vent and prevent the metal from warping under him, but he didn't want to put so much strain on it…

Felicia still hadn't moved on without him. He was about to risk a whisper when he noticed she was holding a hand out to him, two silver studs shining in her palm.

Earrings? That's what they looked like to him, and it was confirmed when Felicia tapped against her ear with her free hand. He took them despite the confusion they filled him with, and the traces of Symby on his hand seemed to know what to do with them. Using itself as a glue, it pressed the earrings snugly against the opening of his ear canal. As they settled, he felt… lighter all of a sudden. More acutely aware of his balance, as if the earrings were pulling equally on either side of his body, linking into his brain. He automatically shifted his position, redistributing his weight to where it would be used better, and tested the vent floor in front of him. He gritted his teeth, expecting to hear the steel protest, but with Symby only cushioning his hand against it he managed to press down silently. He'd still need to go slow, but with much less worrying about where he put his limbs.

Once she figured he understood, Felicia finally pressed on behind the rest of Symby. The dark was occasionally broken up by thin slats of light coming up from grilled openings in the floor.

As they both twisted and turned all Eddie could see was her boots, the fur brushing against the steel beneath. And her thighs.

Not that he was complaining, though he almost ran right into her rear (again, not a complaint) when they reached the end of the vent. Felicia dropped down, somehow managing a front flip before she landed on the carpet below. Symby didn't follow her down, instead snapping back to Eddie to help him take a less graceful route down. Felicia stepped in to catch his feet, making sure he didn't make any noise when he reached the ground. He was only slightly surprised that she was able to hold him up with almost no effort- he'd learned to expect just about anything where she was concerned.

They seemed to have ended up in another corridor, with the stairwell in front of them. While Symby fixed the vent cover back on to where they'd just emerged from, he pulled out the studs lodged in his ears and handed them back to Felicia.

"Magic earrings?" he asked, fully ready at that point to accept a simple answer of 'yes'.

"Equilibrium enhancers," she corrected, fastening them properly back onto her own ears."I had the Tinkerer make them for me."

Eddie blinked, almost forgetting that things like that were possible nowadays cause he'd never had to use them before. "Huh. Handy."

"Especially when you're sneaking into places others don't want you to be." Felicia adjusted her gloves around her wrists, while Symby dripped back around Eddie's shoulders, blending into his clothing. "Speaking of which...this got a lot more complicated a lot quicker than I thought it would."

That was one way to put it. Eddie was about to voice his own bafflement at what the evening lead them to when Symby cut his thoughts off with another frantic screech as it flooded over his body.

"_**Eddie, behind you! People are coming!"**_

He nodded as the symbiote crawled up his neck. "We need to move. **Now." **

"I know." Felicia was already pulling herself up the stairs while Venom seized him, shooting out something from her wrist to grab onto the railing several floors above. A grappling hook, Venom saw as he followed her shortcut method by simply throwing himself up the flights, arms over claws as he barrelled through the air until he reached the top, perching on the railing while Felicia eyed up the window in front of her. She jammed it open as far as it would go, took one look down and another back at him.

"Remember what I said about doors?" she asked quietly, flashing a smirk before throwing herself through the opening in a flurry of white. Venom started forwards, but a bang from below froze him in place. Footsteps on the stairs. He had to get out. But the window opening was far too small to fit him… so he forced it open wider, breaking the steel bar holding it in place like it was paper and warping the frame as he forced his massive shoulders through it. He stuck to the sheer wall of the building below, seeing Felicia scaling her way down with the grappling hook lodged in the window frame-

The frame he just broke. Oh, shit.

"**Cat!" **He watched the hook slip from its anchor, too fast for him or his webbing to catch. So he dropped into freefall, his heavy mass letting him catch up to her in seconds. He caught her just as she noticed her gear had slipped, wrapping his arm tight around her while his other made a webline on the tower, swinging them free of it and getting them close enough to the rooftops below. Still keeping Felicia secured to his chest,he alternated swinging between arms to bring them down to a flat roof, tucking his legs in as he landed. He heaved, growling from relief as he released her. She seemed shaken, slowly pulling her arms back from around his neck, but unharmed.

"Something tells me they're gonna get better security up there pretty soon," she said, trying to mask a tremor in her voice as she brushed her suit down. "Or stronger windows, at least."

"**Our fault."** He looked away sheepishly. "**Sorry about that."**

She cocked an eyebrow at him. "And here I thought you did it on purpose. Y'know, for a chance to swoop in and save me."

"**Well, when you put it that way… you're welcome."**

She swatted at his shoulder, just as the symbiote pulled back from Eddie. "Focus, Romeo. We got away this time, but… I still don't know what the hell's going on." She sat on the edge of an AC unit, rubbing at her temples. Eddie stood opposite her, with Symby as a leather jacket shielding him from the cold.

"We know Osborn's involved now, at least," he said, still not quite believing it. "I don't get it… he's been in hiding for years, why come out now? How deep does this thing really go?"

She shrugged. "We won't know until we follow it all the way down."

He felt his forehead creased as he frowned, trying to dissect the results of their eavesdropping. He still didn't know what Symby had sensed was 'off' about Osborn (if anything could even be 'right' about an insane millionaire who dressed up as a goblin), and the symbiote itself wasn't telling him much more about it. He'd keep it from Felicia until he had a better idea of it, just to stop her being as paranoid as he felt.

"You know who 'The Eel' is?" he asked, keeping to things she might know instead of things she didn't need to know just now.

"I stole his hideout when I was starting out," she said with a proud smile. "He didn't really work for me, but I kept tabs on him just in case. From the looks of things, it's like everyone who cut loose from me has been drawn into whatever Osborn's planning."

"Coincidence?"

"Maybe. Small-timers like them are good for low-profile jobs, especially if whoever's in charge keeps themselves hidden."

"Whatever it is, Osborn's obviously got something big in mind." Eddie didn't notice he was pacing back and forth until he stopped to consider the one question bothering him the most, the one making Symby scratch at his skin.

"...But why is Alchemax's CEO involved as well?"

Felicia was now lounging on the unit, living up to her namesake as she curled her legs. "She was married to Osborn's son. That's the Harry they were talking about. But she clearly wasn't happy about having to work with Norman."

"She still agreed to, though," Eddie pointed out, his scowl going deeper the more he thought about it.

Felicia looked away for a second, the glint in her eyes matching that on her claws. "What did she mean when she said she made a 'deal' with you?"

Eddie felt his throat close up, and hoped his cough didn't sound as guilty as he knew it was."We get medicine from her. It stops Symby from going on…" He waited for the symbiote to let him know if he could say it, but even with permission he found it hard to get out.

"Rampages," he eventually managed. "Usually just chocolate kept it calm, but that's not as effective as it once was."

Felicia looked up from her lazy pose, eyes just a little wider. "Good to know. Remind me to bring even more next time."

Eddie made a note of that, even if she didn't mean it, and his mind wandered as Symby dredged up an important reminder.

"We have an appointment with Liz tomorrow," he said, sensing the opportunity as he got the words out.

Felicia shot up, like she'd just been hit with a taser. "Do _not_ mention anything you saw tonight," she hissed.

"I won't. I'm not stupid. But I'm not gonna let _her _think I'm stupid either."

A half-smile dawned on her. "You'd be surprised how useful acting dumb can end up being." She didn't care to elaborate as she pounced to her feet, pulling her suit zipper up slightly and shaking the loose fur from her collar. "Not much point in staking out anywhere tonight since we already have a solid lead, so unless you're coming back with me, I'm having an early night."

"Not gonna go off and rob a store when my back's turned?" Eddie asked, following her to the edge of the roof.

"Please. I don't need to wait for that to happen before I steal." She pulled the fur on her glove back to examine the grappling hook stored there. "And I've got something much more important to deal with."

"Like what?" Eddie asked, slightly worried about the answer. She looked at him, making sure her smile was sincere for once.

"Trashy chick-lit. Only 20 pages left to get through."

Despite what he'd thought before, Eddie was seriously surprised. In a good way. It left him open-mouthed, blank-minded, trying to process that she was being serious, almost making him forget to ask what had been gnawing on his mind since they'd left the vents.

"Before you go… what's with the glowing eyes thing?" He waved his fingers in front of his own eyes. Still smiling, she took hold of his wrist and passed his hand in front of her vision. When it did, the blue glow returned for a second before fading back to green when she pulled his hand back up.

"Electromagnetic contact lenses," she told him. "They let me see in infrared. Good for seeing people in the dark, too."

He was definitely wrong before; she was _full_ of surprises that he had no way to prepare for. He wasn't sure how to feel about that.

"Another gift from the Tinkerer?" he asked, masking his own immense inadequacy in her wake. He had the feeling most men had to do that with her.

"Might be," she said coyly, a radioactive glimmer still lingering in that green gaze. "Now I have a question for you." He swore he saw her irises narrow like a cat's, or maybe that was just him feeling like a mouse in front of her.

"Shoot," he said cautiously, only making the glimmer even brighter as he folded his arms across his chest.

"Skintight suit. No clothes underneath. " Felicia cocked her head. "How come your dick never shows through?"

Eddie blinked. He blinked many, many times, his fingers digging into his elbows. And he tried very very hard not to stutter as he answered. "Symby hides it."

"Hm." She didn't hide how her eyes flashed down to the subject of the question. "That's a shame…" A wink blurred into the backflip that sent her flying out into the night, leaving him to all the stutters he wouldn't have to hide anymore. "Night, Eddie!" she called out from below, likely knowing full well that she'd be on his mind the whole way home now.

"_**I'm confused," **_Symby confessed as the two made their way down to street level, oblivious to the heat in Eddie's face_._ "_**Should I… not hide it**_**?"**

"Wha-? No!" He was stuttering already, and she wasn't even gone for a minute. "I mean… don't listen to her! She's just joking."

"_**I think she was serious."**_

"Well then _especially _don't listen to her. She's a bad influence." And yet Eddie knew he'd see her again anyway, because she wasn't as bad as so many others. Not nearly as bad. He hoped so, at least.

"_**I think I like her, Eddie.**_"

He liked her too. But, once again, he just shushed Symby.


	6. Night 4

Felicia didn't know what to expect when she heard the knock on her bedroom window, but she was glad to see that it was only Venom.

_Only _Venom. How many criminals got to say that with genuine relief?

"You're early." She unlatched the window so he could let himself in, returning to her dressing table where she sat before. As she continued brushing out her white tresses in the mirror, she saw the symbiote peeling back from Eddie as he climbed in.

"Came here straight from the meeting with Liz," he said, crossing his arms across his chest and leaning against her wall. Felicia couldn't decipher his expression in the mirror, though she could tell his stubble was growing in. And he seemed to have gotten used to seeing her out of her suit (though not in the way most men were used to it. Not yet, at least).

"How'd it go?" she asked.

"Didn't mention anything about a break-in last night, but security was a lot tighter than when we went in. If we tried to go back, I guarantee it'll be a lot harder a second time."

Just as she expected. It was why she'd wanted a look in at their records while she had the chance. "Anything else?"

Eddie was silent for a moment, looking at some indistinct point on the carpet. Maybe debating with Symby on how much to tell her. They reached an agreement eventually.

"...She said we're cured."

Felicia turned to face him, her brush still going through her hair. "Cured?"

"Completely. Whatever was making Symby go feral… it's gone now. Must have happened when your ex tried to steal it from me and wasted almost all of the medicine in the process."

Of course he was still pissed about that. He hadn't shut up about it the whole time they'd worked together against Price. Then again, Flash always had that effect of making every other guy his enemy somehow. She swore he hadn't been this much trouble when they were together...

"Well, at least something good came out of it," she said, setting the brush down and combing out the last knots with her fingers as she went behind her dressing screen. "Unless… you think Liz might be lying?"

"No, she showed us the proof just before she kicked us out. Something about having an interview to get ready for." Eddie's voice carried over the screen as she prepared to pull her suit on. "I know it's true, anyway. Symby… it's calmer now. Hasn't threatened to eat anyone's brains and meant it in days. Not just from the chocolate its been eating."

"So it doesn't need it anymore?" she asked, wriggling herself into the tight leather. Eddie spluttered in panic, or maybe that was the symbiote speaking through him.

"We never said that! That's still part of the deal!"

"I thought as much." Felicia was pulling up the zipper as she re-emerged, smiling to herself.

From her table drawer, she retrieved the last part of her outfit and a snack for Symby. The mask fit snugly into the curves of her face, secured by the special adhesive seeped into the leather, and she threw the candy bar over to Eddie. He caught it in one black-stained hand.

"Well. I'm happy for you both," she said. "So long as it means you two can still keep up the scary monster act."

"**Of course. It's what we do best." **Eddie must have taken her dressing as the cue to prepare to leave, as Venom now crouched on the building wall outside her window with pieces of candy wrapper stuck in his teeth. She was glad to see he was still eager, and she double-checked the grappling hooks in her fur cuffs before letting them carry her up to the roof of her building. Once she had a good vantage point, she pulled out her friend tracker.

"If my tracer's still going strong, Keith should be just a few blocks away." She recognised the place. It was a deserted overgrown park, just down the street from where she usually bought groceries. She'd have to try and keep the fighting away from there if she didn't want to find somewhere else that sold her brand of cereal. "Let's go see what he and Eel are up to."

Venom growled in agreement. "**Lead the way."**

She didn't need to look back to know he was close behind her, galloping across the roof after her. She expected to hear complaints from the top floor residents the following morning, but that wasn't anything new. As they neared the park, she slowed the pace until they were in front of the entrance. It was small enough, planted right in the middle of the neighbourhood,that she could have seen the whole thing from above if not for the trees blocking most of the view. It wasn't much of a problem for her, but with someone as big as Venom…

"How do you feel about climbing trees?" she asked, silently plotting a route from the roof down to the branches.

"**Uncomfortable. Sticky. And not many can hold our weight."** Venom's tongue licked back a string of drool as he growled.

"Then you stay hidden on the ground. I'll recon the situation from above and give you a signal if it needs stopped."

"**What kind of signal?"**

She thought for a moment, watching the surface of the symbiote swirl around his muscles. Then she figured it out. "Reach up part of the symbiote to me, and I'll pull on it."

"**Very well. We can hide ourselves until then."**

With the plan in place, Felicia leapt down from the roof to a tree branch overhanging the tall park fence. She braced herself against the trunk, tracing a way through the park via the lower branches. Venom's methods were predictably less elegant; he vaulted over the fence, and stalked through the grass below. Felicia could see it being crushed beneath him in his wake, and he seemed to blend effortlessly into the shifting shadows of the branches. Maybe he was better suited to this than she thought. She left him to it while she tried to scan for signs of life in the park. There were no working streetlights in the park, and she didn't want to risk the glow of her contact lenses giving her away, so she had to strain to see in the dark.

Keith would be obvious enough in his ring-studded suit, but she didn't know if Eel still had that tacky purple-blue look. Well, she'd know soon enough. If she kept pushing through, making enough noise-

"You hear something?"

She stopped, flattening herself against the tree trunk. That was definitely Keith's voice, somewhere to her left.

"Probably just a bird." And that was definitely Eel. "The recruiters aren't gonna sneak around, they got no reason to."

"And how do _you _know that?"

Felicia checked that Venom had stopped too before easing herself closer, until she saw the glint of the rings embedded in Keith's suit. She hoped he'd had a chance to get it washed since she last saw him.

"Cause I just do," Eel answered impatiently, glimmering purple and blue under his suit's thick slippery coating (that gave her chills just thinking about touching it). "Only thing I _don't_ know is why the boss keeps giving you chances."

"He knows just how _valuable_ I am."

Eel barked a harsh laugh that he only muffled to keep up some pretense of secrecy. "Valuable. Sure. Cause not just anyone can slap on frisbees all over them, noooo, you gotta be a _professional_ to handle that line of work."

Keith scoffed. "Like I'm gonna be looked down on by a guy wearing a grease suit." As always, Felicia almost felt bad for him, but really what did he expect? At least Eel could just electrocute anyone who made fun of _his _outfit. "

"Just keep the metal away from me, and you _might_ not get fried," Eel grunted. "And keep your mouth shut."

"Hey, talking is as much my job as it is yours!"

"Talking was your _only _job and you couldn't even do it right."

"Well I could do a hell of a better job than yo-!" Keith's hiss was cut off by a hand clamped over his mouth.

"Quiet. They're coming." Eel lowered his hand to let Keith splutter and gag and wipe away the grease left behind.

"Eww! Fine, fine, just keep that shit outta my mouth!" He was trying to scrub his chin clean as 'they' approached from the right of where Felicia perched. Though the dark made them little more than silhouettes, there was a glint of something that she recognised. Something that made what she already knew even more confusing. She crouched, turning so she was hanging under the branch by her legs. With her arms free and hair dangling, she tapped Venom on the shoulder.

"I know that uniform," she whispered to him. "Those are members of The Hood's gang."

"**The Hood?"** Venom's attempt at a whisper was like listening to knives caught in a meat grinder, but at least it was quiet.

"He and Diamondback were my two main rivals," she explained, with a weird sense of detachment. As if the Black Cat that had made enemies of them was a completely different person. "After Diamondback got taken out, Hood swooped in and took over his men," she went on. "And with me out of the picture, he's all but won the title of New York's Kingpin." That was what she'd pieced together, at least. The Hood made himself particularly hard to find, even if you worked for him, and she'd never been able to tell what he was really up to even when she was fighting against him. But from the looks of things, whatever business he was up to was booming.

Venom had a different view of the new kingpin. "**Must not be that good at it if we've never heard of him," **he huffed.

"Or it's _because_ you've never heard of him that makes him so dangerous," Felicia pointed out. That was a lesson she'd learned the hard way.

"**Hm. His lackeys don't look that dangerous, anyway."** His shoulders tensed, hard as stone as she squeezed one of them in warning.

"Stay back for now. I'll go closer and see what this is all about. Send up a tendril after me so I can signal." She swung herself back up onto the branch, making her way higher up to the thicker ones to get closer than Venom could. Her new vantage gave her a good enough view of the meeting site, with Eel and Ringer on one side and the Hood agents facing her. As she crouched, curling her fingers tight around the branch, she felt something slide over her shoulder, something black like oil.

"Hey, Symby," she whispered. The symbiote hadn't spoken to her yet that night, but it gave a soft gurgle in acknowledgement. It probably couldn't see with its eyes over Eddie's, so Felicia would need to pay attention for both of them. She narrowed her eyes down at the scene below, as Hood's men stopped before the other two.

"Ringer and Eel… we've been told you wish to join our organisation." Their faces were all hidden beneath- what else?- hoods drawn over their heads, so she couldn't tell which one of them had spoken. Eel likely couldn't either, but that didn't impact his confidence as he answered.

"You've been told right. We think our services would be much more effective used towards a common goal." Felicia didn't remember Eel being so eloquent. Maybe Norman had written out a script for him.

"And what do you think our 'goal' is?" It was probably the same one that spoke before who asked it, but she couldn't tell for sure. Eel stepped in front of Keith, likely to stop him from answering first.

"Steal whatever isn't already yours and make New York your bitch?"

"Yes, that's a good way of putting it." So The Hood's employees had a sense of humour, at least.

"_**Can't sense any reinforcements." **_Felicia almost jumped when she heard Symby, gripping the branch beneath her for balance. She didn't know if it was speaking to her or Eddie, or maybe both of them, but she nodded in acknowledgement. Hood wouldn't waste too many men on a recruitment drive, especially not for D-listers like these two. Whatever happened next, at least they'd only have the five of them all to deal with. She'd missed some of the chatter from listening to Symby, but she returned focus just in time.

"Prove your worth to us, then." The middle man stepped back, with his companions following suit, and nodded between each of the villains. "One of you, kill the other. Whoever survives will have the honour of joining us."

Eel looked at Keith for a few seconds while the other man spluttered, then shrugged. "Alright."

"Wait, wait, wait! I-I never agreed to this!" Keith was frozen from the neck down, his head frantically swivelling between Eel and the men who just ordered his death. Eel was charging up his gloves, electricity crackling between his fingers, about to aim them at Keith-

"Now!" Felicia yanked on the symbiote, making it zip back down through the branches to follow the rest of it rippling around Eddie, as he leapt out from the bushes to ambush them all. They all flinched back, with Keith falling back flat on his ass, and Eel's pulse of electricity shot off into the air like a bolt of lightning.

"**We're very disappointed in you, Keith,"** Venom scolded, while the poor guy cowered and scrambled across the ground.

"Oh god, oh god! Not again!"

Eel shook himself, the charge built up in his hands dying away as he glared at the intruder."Venom?! Don't you have some sewer rats to go eat or something?" He stepped back as he tried to force electricity back into his gauntlets.

"**Too stringy." **Venom didn't advance on him, not when he could easily disembowel both men with a hand. "**We prefer street rats like you."**

"D-do it, do it, eat him instead!" Keith stuttered, jabbing his finger at the one who was just seconds away from frying him. "He's the one that'll piss you off!"

"**We're already pissed off. How much worse are you willing to make it?"**

As Venom made Keith wet himself again, Felicia saw Hood's men slipping back into the shadows. Whatever they wanted the two guys for, it wasn't worth going against Venom. Eel noticed just a few seconds later, losing the weapon charge all over again along with his focus.

"Hey, wait, where're you going?! It'll only take like two minutes to take this guy out-!"

"They're leaving cause they don't wanna get fucking eaten!" Keith had resorted to trying to clamber up a tree trunk, using his rings to dig into the wood.

"**Wise men," **Venom huffed. "**We'll get to them later. But you first." **He turned to Eel while he was still trying to force his gauntlets to work, and pounced. He would have easily tackled him, pinning him under his claws… would have, if not for the slick oil that coated Eel's suit and let him slip right out of Venom's grip before it could crush him. Felicia cursed under her breath. She should have warned him about that...

"**Eghh… what is this?"** Venom snorted as he stared at his claws and the viscous clear oil dripping from them, gingerly flicking them to try and get it off.

"It's got a long name I can't remember," Eel grunted, having landed in a crouch a safe distance away, "and it keeps creeps like you off of me."

Venom shook his head, sending saliva flying as he growled. "**Disgusting. At least our slime keeps to itself!"**

There was a growing halo of light from Eel's gloves again. "Ring, shoot out something already!"

Keith hadn't made much progress in trying to flee into the tree. "B...b-but what if it breaks aga-?"

"NOW!"

Keith yelped, and let loose a barrage of rings while holding his eyes closed. They skimmed past Venom, just as Eel released the charge from his hands. The bolt arced, then shot out towards the rings to make the air in front of Venom crackle angrily. Venom snarled, bringing up an arm to shield himself from the heat, unable to move past it until it dissipated.

Oh shit. Eel was smarter than Felicia had thought. The metal in the rings was drawing his electric shots to wherever they hit, like homing beacons. If either of them got a clear shot at Venom, the symbiote would be fried… maybe even Eddie too. Even if they didn't hit him directly, if one of the trees caught fire then it would spread into an inferno and be even worse for the symbiote.

This was bad. Felicia hadn't planned this out well enough… but she could still save it. Though she had to stay hidden, she had one power that no one else did. Keith was relying on blind, literally blind, luck to make his shots. If she concentrated, willing the rings to curve just a little too far out, ricochet off of something...

One of them did. A hard patch of bark sent it flying right back to its sender, crashing into his face and knocking him backwards. He twitched, but didn't get back up.

"**Maybe he should call himself The Boomerang instead,"** Venom suggested.

"Useless," Eel spat, rubbing his gloves together. "Gotta do everything myself…" Rather than build up a massive lightning bolt, he peppered the ground with smaller shocks that crackled in Venom's wake as he dodged them. The symbiote shied away from them, but they never hit close enough to cause it pain.

"Stand... still already!" Eel had to keep his shots closer and closer to himself to stop Venom coming after him, rapid fires of electricity aa he stumbled away from him. One of his gloves frizzled, sparking but not letting loose anything like what it was capable of. His suit was running out of fuel, and at this rate he'd soon have nothing to protect him from Venom.

"God dammit… next time, freak!" Eel turned heel and bolted, using the last of his energy to leave a trail of flashing heat behind him. Venom just hunched in place as he fled, gnashing his fangs. One he was out of sight, Felicia let out the sigh of relief she'd been struggling to hold in.

"**Being called a freak by someone else covered in ooze. That hurts." **Venom snorted, and turned to her when she leapt down to join him. "**You have something to do with Ringer knocking himself out?"**

"I might've." She knelt down by Keith, making sure he was out cold, wincing at the red bruise all over his face. "Something tells me he'll be handing in his resignation to Osborn tomorrow, so he's a dead end now."

"**Better a dead end than just dead."**

Felicia shrugged. "True. But with those Hood guys gone, now we don't have any more leads to follow."

Venom narrowed his eyes at the criminal left behind, scratching his chin with a talon. "**Eel may have failed his initiation… but there could be others who passed it. Others already in with The Hood."**

Felicia considered that. "Others that we haven't checked out yet. Might be… a shame we can't know which ones are also with Osborn, though."

"**Like you said, we'll start small. Find the clues, then follow them wherever they lead."** Venom pulled his claw back from his face**, **scowling at the residue still staining them. "**For now, we'd like to get this grease off."**

"Just as well you didn't shower before we left," Felicia said, taking the easy way out of the park and stepping over the slimy puddles Eel had left on the ground in his escape. Venom was right about one thing; and least _he _kept the slime to himself.


	7. Night 4 Part 2

"_**Thank you for letting him use it."**_ Symby purred next to Felicia on the sofa, the hiss of the shower faintly coming through the crack in the bedroom door behind them. "_**He's been happier since the first time."**_

"It's no trouble," Felicia said, idly flicking through the TV channels. "So long as he does as he's told and stays away from my good soap."

Symby gurgled. It wasn't so much a sound of amusement as it was an acknowledgement that it saw the humour in her threat.

"_**Eddie's priorities have always been skewed. He doesn't treat himself like a normal human. Sometimes I forget that he **_**isn't** _**normal."**_

Felicia held back a laugh. "You're saying this to a grown woman who goes out at night in a furry catsuit."

Symby didn't gurgle this time. "_**But you still live as a human. You eat. You sleep. There were times when…"**_ It trailed off before it overstepped any boundaries. Felicia cocked an eyebrow, abandoning the TV. She knew when there was a tragic backstory to be uncovered.

"When what?" she asked, leaning her head against her hand with her elbow on top of the sofa. Symby had coiled itself in the space next to her, like a lump of oily rope, and it curled deeper into the coil as if it could merge into a featureless blob. Maybe wishing it hadn't said anything. But eventually the eyes floating up through the black to answer her.

"_**When he wouldn't do any of that. He wouldn't let himself. Sleep only ever came when I couldn't keep him going, and he simply collapsed. And food only distracted him. He preferred to go without." **_

There was guilt seeped into the symbiote's confession, as much as it itself seeped into her couch. Felicia couldn't imagine living like that, couldn't even see the Eddie that she knew now being in such a state. "What did he do instead?" she asked quietly.

"_**Hunt down the spider. Or exercise. Never anything else." **_The eyes floated away from Felicia's gaze, like white leaves on water escaping the grip of a current. "_**Though it wasn't his fault. If I hadn't found him… maybe we wouldn't have become so obsessed with revenge."**_

"If you hadn't found him, he'd probably be dead." Felicia didn't know much about Eddie's life before Venom, but if he was already so obsessed then there was no doubt in her mind that he wouldn't have survived it. And she knew she was right from how Symby shivered, tiny ripples breaking up its fluid surface.

"_**Sometimes I think he'd rather he was. But he won't let me in that part of his brain. Not anymore." **_The symbiote pooled, losing some of its shape and becoming a puddle beside Felicia. Maybe it couldn't stay solid if it was upset. She never thought she'd feel so bad for goop before.

"You want my opinion, Symby?" Felicia pulled her legs up, leaning down to address the melted alien directly. "I think you're good for him."

Symby blinked blindly, rippling again as it pulled itself back together. "_**I try to be."**_

"That's all you can do. And you must know he appreciates it." She watched it affirm its form, the tongue peeking out before settling back behind hidden teeth, and took pride in knowing she helped it a little. Symbiotes were a lot easier to talk to than other people. No wonder Eddie preferred one to the other.

"_**I think you're good for him, too."**_

Felicia had just gone back to channel-surfing when Symby spoke up again. "What makes you say that?" she asked, genuinely confused.

"_**It's another thing he always neglected. Being with other humans. My kind can survive isolation, but yours… I've seen what the loneliness can do. Ignoring it only makes it worse. He needs to be reminded that the world isn't just enemies and innocents."**_

Felicia considered its proposal, frowning. It didn't make as much sense to her as it must have to Symby, mostly due to one inconsistency..

"I'm not exactly innocent, though."

"_**Neither are we. We gave up any claim to that long ago. But you don't need to be innocent to be a hero. I learned that the hard way. From others."**_

Felicia opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Just as not all heroes were innocent, not all innocents were heroes. It was wrong to group them both together as opposites. She knew that, yet she'd been making that mistake to herself all along.

Was it all really that simple? It must have been… of course it was. Of course the symbiote was right. Just look at Spider-Man, after all. Just look at… anyone else Symby had been bonded to before.

"Others. You mean like Flash?"

The symbiote flinched, and she worried she'd said something wrong.

"_**...Yes. He… taught me to be good." **_It didn't sound angry, or betrayed at the mention of its other host. Whatever had made it flinch was only out of… sadness. It was losing its shape again, but only for a second. It recovered with a ripple.

"He has that effect on people," she said, putting it far too lightly. Couldn't get much further on the hero scale than 'war hero', after all. Sometimes she wondered what it would have been like to date that Flash, and just how different he was to the one she'd tricked into being with her.

Tricked. That was the only explanation for how someone who had so many morals stuffed into his heart would have ever gone for her.

"_**He thought a lot about you,"**_ Symby told her. "_**When I was with him." **_

It must have been reading her thoughts. Dammit, she had to be more careful when crap like that came out. "Did he now?" she said, aiming to dismiss the whole subject. The last thing she wanted to do was talk about her ex with his _other _ex from another planet. But Symby must not have caught _that _thought in her head.

"_**While he slept,"**_ it answered. "_**He would see you. He would speak, sometimes, but I couldn't always hear him."**_

Felicia kept her face blank, intending to turn back to the TV. Find something interesting. The news, maybe. There might've be a report on lightning flashes spotted in Greenwich. Just a few channels away… but her curiosity got the better of her (for someone called Black Cat, she really had to stop giving into it before it did her in).

"Only when he slept?" she asked.

"_**Always.**_" Symby chirped- at least, that's what Felicia thought the sound was. "_**It's strange. Both Flash and the spider loved you, but the feelings I sensed were so different from one another."**_

Felicia had an easy answer for that. "Flash didn't love me, Symby. I even don't think Peter did. I'm not the kind of girl men fall in love with." Despite how long she liked to kid herself for, the truth had caught up with her a while ago. All there was to do with it was embrace it.

"_**At the very least, he still cared about you. Even though you used him." **_It wasn't an accusation, despite how much it sounded like one.

"Yeah, well, he was never the sharpest tool in the shed." She tried not to sound too defensive. Symby went silent, only for a moment, and she breathed a sigh of relief just a little too early.

"_**You kissed him," **_it said, flicking its tongue to show a glimpse of teeth. "_**Why?"**_

Felicia held back the urge to roll her eyes. Why were these two so suspicious of her doing that? Because they'd dated? Surely it would be weirder if she kissed him and they _didn't _have history together.

"I already told Eddie why. Because I was grateful, and it seemed like an easy way to say thanks." That's what she'd told herself, and that's what she was sticking to. No symbiote rooting around in her head was going to find anything that said otherwise. Whether or not Symby actually tried to, she couldn't say. It clearly didn't believe her anyway.

"_**Do you wish you were with him again?" **_

She sighed, and this time she didn't care if it believed her because she knew she was being honest. "No. He's too good for me."

Symby blinked, curling its neck up towards her. "_**Good? Like the spider?"**_

"In a way, I guess. But not because he's got an act to keep up or a city to impress. That's just how Flash is. And someone like that deserves better than someone like me."

"_**Someone like you..." **_It didn't seem to understand what she meant. She wasn't surprised. Even with how long it had been on Earth for, there were bound to be things that just didn't translate over well.

"Like I said, I'm not a girl to fall in love with" She crossed her arms over her chest, having to squeeze to press her breasts down. "Not even the kind a guy wants to bring home to his parents. More like the kind he takes home and brags about the morning after."

Symby squinted for a moment. "_**We disagree." **_

It didn't elaborate further, and quite frankly Felicia was too surprised to ask it to. Did it mean 'we' as 'Venom', or 'we' as 'me and Eddie'? Even though they were both technically the same thing, it was still hard for her brain to keep such a connection between them in mind. She didn't know if Venom's thoughts were just those that Eddie and Symby could both agree on, or if one had more input than the other. Hell,

she didn't know if what the symbiote said was just Eddie's thoughts influencing its own.

Most of all… she didn't know what to think of any of it. At least when she was with Peter and Flash they only ever had one voice speaking for them. Even when Peter had the symbiote, he was still one person. And when Flash had it, she'd heard he'd drugged himself to block it out.

And yet… Symby still remembered him fondly. As if it had spoken to him just as it spoke to Eddie. Whatever its bond with Flash was like, it clearly didn't involve silencing it.

Which raised a question that probably would have been better buried away.

"If you don't mind me asking… why aren't _you _with Flash anymore?"

Symby didn't flinch. It shuddered, stretching a flap of black back to expose a row of fangs in a silent hiss. Not directed at her. Just a habit of whatever it was now feeling. "_**Didn't want to leave. Was forced to**__." _It shook itself again, hiding its teeth and narrowing his eyes so they were just white slits. "_**I was… attacked. Not Venom, not us. Only me. Fire in my atoms that was worse than fire. Had to get away… lost Flash. Found Lee instead."**_

Felicia stiffened, though she hoped Symby didn't notice. She knew about that attack. Had read about it… in Alchemax's files. She'd need to check it again before she told either it or Eddie about what it contained. For now, she kept it as far from her mind as possible. If she hid it well enough, Symby shouldn't have been able to see it.

"Ah. So _that's_ how that prick ended up with you." With her track record for getting involved with Venom hosts, she almost felt cursed.

Symby nodded, shuddering again with a painful growl.

"_**Don't like remembering that."**_

"I don't blame you." Lee was bad enough with Symby's clone; Felicia didn't want to think of what he was like with the original.

Behind her, the background hiss of the shower cut off.

"Ugh. I dunno what the hell that Eel guy covers himself with, but it somehow gets _under_ symbiote skin."

At the sound of Eddie's voice, Symby shot over the sofa as a black streak and slipped through the small opening between her bedroom door and its frame. A few moments later Eddie himself emerged, fully clothed and still rubbing a towel against his hair. He looked down at her; cross-legged on her couch, ready to slip into bed at a moment's notice.

"Hello Kitty PJs," he said. "Adorable."

Felicia pressed her lips and narrowed her eyes. "Don't give me that look. They're comfy."

"Hey, I'm not judging," he insisted. "Not when I just sleep in an alien." He pulled the towel down to rest around his neck, and cast his eyes to the TV. "Could you turn the volume up a little?"

Felicia did so, only just seeing that she'd been sitting on one of the news channels all along. She also saw why Eddie was so interested in it.

"_Ms Allan, what about the rumours of Alchemax being involved in some kind of space retrieval mission on behalf of the government last week?"_

"_The reports are true,"_ Liz said, with the begrudging patience of someone who knew she couldn't afford not to have any. "_But Alchemax was only involved in providing the fuel used in the mission. We have no knowledge of the purpose of the mission, and even if we did we would not be at liberty to divulge them."_

"Must be the interview she mentioned earlier." Eddie sat next to her, sinking deep into the cushion with his weight and almost making her slide down from her side.

"Think this has anything to do with Osborn?" she asked, shifting so she could cling to the armrest.

"Unlikely," he said, leaning back to smooth his damp hair away from his forehead. "Unless he's got some kind of Goblin glider that can take him up into space."

Felicia let out a stream of air between her teeth. "I've seen dumber things happen."

The TV screen changed, a different voice from a different person. "_In other news, earlier tonight our friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man was spotted cleaning up Manhattan after a nasty heist attempt that saw sparks flying all across Midtown. We managed to snare him for a quick word after the explosive battle." _There was a cut to the man himself hanging from a webline, looking back at a cocooned criminal lying against the wall behind him.

"_Yeah, this guy put up a fight but he's not really an A-Lister as far as supervillains go. Not so much shock and awe as 'shock and… huh? Really? That's it?'"_

Peter's voice was the last one Felicia was in the mood for hearing that night. She was about to change over to something more palatable, but then she got a closer look at who he managed to capture.

"Killer Shrike…?"

Eddie looked over, double-checking the TV to try and see what she was seeing. "You recognise him?"

She nodded, pausing the newsfeed so she could be sure. "He was in my gang… one of my top lieutenants. And one of the first people I tried to track down. Couldn't find any trace of him, though."

"Osborn might've gotten to him first," Eddie suggested, just as she thought of it too. "You think Webhead knows about what Norman's up to?"

"I doubt it." She thought over it again, now realising what it meant if Spidey really had no idea. "And hopefully he _won't_ find out before we deal with it." She smiled to herself, imagining the look on Peter's face when they got Osborn behind bars once again, and Eddie took full notice.

"Feeling competitive, Felicia?" he asked.

"A little. Would be nice to debut by upstaging Spidey at his own game."

He flashed his canines in a grin. "Can't argue with that."

Felicia was on her feet now, pacing in front of the TV, spurred on by the new motivation of taking Peter down a peg. "Osborn might bail Shrike out like he did with Keith. If he does, it might be worth trying to find him."

"We can try," Eddie agreed. "But if _you_ couldn't track him down before, it'll only be even harder to now that he's already been caught."

"We might get lucky," Felicia offered. "He'll probably avoid getting caught in the same place again so we can cross Midtown off the list. And his power is pretty flashy, so when he strikes again he won't be subtle about it."

Eddie cocked an eyebrow. "What exactly _is _his power?"

Felicia took a moment to answer, in light of what Venom had just fought against an hour ago.

"...Electricity."

"_Again_?!"

She shrugged. "There's only so many ways you can be original, you know. At least Shrike doesn't have any weird ooze."

Eddie let out a long sigh as he stood, pulling the towel off his neck. "I think I'd take the ooze over almost getting fried again…"

"Well, you have til tomorrow to decide," Felicia assured him, moving towards her bedroom. "I'm gonna look into what else I can find on him, see if I can spot a pattern we can track."

Eddie followed her, taking the time to leave the towel in the bathroom. "Why do I feel like you're the brains of this whole alliance?"

"Cause if you were in charge of any brains, you'd eat them," she said, holding open the window for him. He frowned as his clothes gurgled.

"_**Haha. That was a good one."**_ Felicia was glad Symby thought so. Eddie shot a hard look down at his shoulder.

"On that note, I'm leaving before you turn my own symbiote against me."

"Good night, Eddie," Felicia lilted after them through the window. "You too, Symby." She thought she heard it purr back at her.


	8. Night 5

_So when I first posted this chapter, for some reason the document got fucked up with a whole bunch of text formatting code and I didn't realise it until a while later. I copy and paste the text for each chapter straight from a Google doc and for some reason this specific chapter flat-out refuses to transfer properly that way. Anyway, it's fixed now. As an apology, I'll be uploading chapter 9 right after this. _

**xx**

Venom was a little later than usual when he arrived at Felicia's building. She was already waiting on the opposite roof for him, combing her white hair through the clawed gloves.

"You look a little solemn tonight, Eddie." No question of what the delay was, but she must have figured the two phenomena were linked to each other. He looked away, the whites creasing over his eyes.

"**Found a body on the way over," **he rumbled. **"We recognised him. It was Norton, also known as the Looter."**

Felicia's eyebrows shot up, black to match her mask and to contrast the rest of her hair. Somehow Venom had never noticed that before.

"How'd he die?" she asked.

"**Narrow stab wound through the heart. There were splinters in the wound." **His claws twitched, remembering having to pluck them out from his mangled chest to be sure.

"Like he was stabbed with wood?" Felicia looked as confused as he'd felt when he realised it.

"**Looked like it." **

Felicia was the one to look away this time, crossing her arms over her chest. "Sad to hear it." And she really did sound sad. "I remember running into him a few times some years back. He never went for my kind of targets, so I always left him alone."

Norton really was the bottom of the barrel when it came to criminals, but that was something to be thankful for. He had one goal, to loot, and it was all he did. No hostages, no grand heists, no murder. Well, there was that one time Venom thought he'd inevitably crossed the line...

"**Just a few weeks ago we almost cracked his skull open," **he admitted, the symbiote squirming as it remembered being held back by nothing more than Eddie's willpower. **"We barely stopped ourselves. Thought we'd finally scared him off the streets." **For Norton's own sake, for his own good, Venom had hoped that was the case. The ones who didn't kill were always wiped out by the ones who did. Sometimes he hated being right.

"Some men are just stupid, Eddie." Felicia held his shoulder, claws gently sinking into the viscous cover of the symbiote. "Even if you spare them, they'll just find some other way to get themselves killed. Nothing you or I or Symby can do about it. Anyway," she released him, though the symbiote still gripped her claws for a second as she pulled away. "I was thinking, while we wait to hear about Shrike's release, we could see if he got involved in any other hits before he got arrested."

Venom nodded, but it was a hollow motion. He heard her speak, but it was drowned out by the second voice in his head. Symby was agitated.

"_**There's something else in her mind, Eddie. I felt it when she touched us. Something she's not telling us. Felt it last night, too. This time I know for sure."**_

Venom nodded again, but not to Felicia. She'd kept on talking, and only just noticed he wasn't really listening.

"Eddie?"

No point in pretending to not know. He tried not to growl, in case he made her run. **"You're hiding something from us."**

Felicia blinked, but her expression didn't change at all. As if she'd been expecting him to find out. "I was," she admitted with neither guilt or pride at fooling him up until now. "Wanted to wait for the right moment to ask about it."

Venom loomed over, more out of habit than a need to intimidate. **"Tell us."**

She looked up at him, but soon broke the eye contact to cast her gaze down at her apartment window on the opposite building. "I'll need to show you. Stay here."

Venom grunted, but only watched as she deftly made her way back to her bedroom. She was only in it for a few seconds before she leapt back out, climbing up to the roof again. There was something in her hand, and she held it out to him. Paper, several sheets, bundled together in black and white.

"I found this in Alchemax Tower, when we broke in. They had a pretty hefty folder filed under 'V', but this stood out to me the most. You know anything about it?"

Venom took it, retracting his claws so they didn't mark the thin paper. As he read it, more and more of the symbiote retreated until Eddie was the one left blinking at the words and the awful, awful truth they were telling him.

"I… this is… this is an order for a chemical compound put in by the FBI." It didn't explicitly say FBI, of course, but he recognised one of the many aliases used by the Bureau when it didn't want to get caught doing something they shouldn't have been doing (which was so often it made him wonder why they even bothered with an 'official' name). Eddie felt his throat close as he absorbed the detailed descriptions of what the chemicals were supposed to do. He recognised the effects, too.

"Some sort of… prototype Anti-Venom fluid. Only dated a few months back. Why…?" He trailed off, a thousand possible answers tingling on his tongue like poison. But this… this was worse than poison. Worse than Anti-Venom. It was intended to rip a symbiote free of its host by overloading it with so much agony that the only relief could come from separating.

And the date meant something. A black trail leaking from his fingertip circled it on the paper, bleeding into the ink of the numbers.

"_**I was with Flash then**_**,"** Symby choked.** "**_**Just a few days before… before the fire came."**_Before the fire that it still shuddered over, that seemed to come out of nowhere. Before it was given no other choice but to bond with the likes of Lee Price.

"The FBI wanted Symby back from Thompson… and Liz helped by corrupting it." Eddie almost crushed the proof in his hands, barely keeping the claws back from tearing it to shreds.

"_**She put the anger in me, Eddie… she made me bad again. Made us hurt people…" **_

"Just so she could turn around and make us do her dirty work for the cure." He was talking to himself, only snippets of his fury able to be heard by Felicia, but he didn't care. He was too angry to care. Too angry to even notice her holding his shoulders until she intentionally pricked him with her claws, and once the sting faded that only made it worse.

"Eddie, calm down," Felicia said firmly. "Are you sure that's what it's saying?"

"It can't possibly be anything else!" Eddie pulled free of her, digging his fingers into his scalp before they could become black talons. "God, this whole fucking time…" Just when he thought Venom was finally free from everyone trying to use it, take it, steal _his _symbiote from him, only to find out that they never free in the first place. He'd been playing someone else's game for them and thinking _they _were the ones doing him a favour for the privilege. This whole time...

'_This whole time…'_

"_**Felicia knew."**_

Eddie opened his eyes, still cradling his head with the papers bent in his fist. "What do you mean...?" He faced away from Felicia, so she knew he wasn't talking to her.

"_**She **_**knew**_** all this time**_**," **Symby hissed, the harsh static of its rage filling his head like a fever_. __**"I saw her going through the files those few nights ago, Eddie. She didn't find that one. She's had it with her since she first broke into the tower!"**_

Eddie felt his jaw clenching, like it was locked in place by a rusty hinge or like the symbiote was congealing around his bones. He felt it like sludge in his veins, boiling in his blood from the combined heat of both their fury. When he turned to face Felicia again, he barely managed to pry his teeth apart to speak.

"When you say you found it when we broke in… did you mean two nights ago, or two _**weeks**_ ago?" He felt Symby throbbing behind his retinas, the black bleeding out into his irises, holding her own gaze. The look that flashed in hers was one that he'd seen countless times before; but in other eyes. Never hers. For the first time since he could remember, she was actually scared of him. He could hear the blood in her body pick up pace as she gulped, confirming her guilt.

"...Eddie-"

"How long have you known about this, Felicia?!" Eddie closed the distance between them in a second; knowing he was screaming loud enough to summon every Spider-Man in the multiverse, knowing he was baring fangs in her face, but not caring enough to stop. She didn't flinch, but she did look away to sigh.

"This is precisely why I waited until now," she said under her breath. "Because I knew you'd be out for blood over it."

Of course he was. What the hell else was he supposed to be feeling?! What was he even supposed to be thinking? Never mind what he _should_ have been doing; all he knew was that he and the symbiote were thinking the same thing, and it burned in his cortex as the black flooded over him.

Maybe a better person would have let it go. He wasn't a better person. He knew enough better people to know that he'd never be one of them.

"**Don't follow us." **If he said anything else to Felicia he knew he'd just spit at her. Her fear gave way to hurt in the second it took for him to turn away.

"Eddie, where are you going? Don't do anything stupid-!" Her pleas faded quickly once he left her behind, and the city too disappeared under his talons, slipping away into the night, as he advanced on the tower. This time he didn't bother trying to hide himself, and he didn't go to the roof. He followed Felicia's advice, her fear still fresh in his nostrils, her guilt heavy on his tongue.

Through the window. Right on top of Liz's desk.

"**ALLAN!" **Venom snapped his head around the dark office for any sign of her, saliva flying out from his tongue. His claws churned the wood of the desk beneath him, and its surface was ruined by the time he heard the brisk cough behind him.

"I see office hours don't mean very much to you, Brock." Liz sat back in her chair; illuminated by the lamp next to her, less than impressed to see him so late in the evening. Like Felicia, she didn't flinch when Venom's drooling maw was only inches from her scowl. That only made him snarl even louder.

"**We know everything." **He slammed the proof down in front of her with a tendril, her own signature pierced by a claw as he jabbed at it.** "You put that virus in us. You infected us so you could sell us the cure**!"

When he pulled his hand back, she barely glanced at the evidence. "Either you've been snooping in my files or I need to fire all of my bookkeepers. Maybe I'll do that anyway, just to be safe.

Venom slammed his hands down in front of her, demanding at least her attention if not her terror. **"We want an explanation, Liz. Before we tear out your vocal cords."**

Liz raised her eyebrows, and sighed. As if she was having to explain something painfully simple to a child. "Yes, I created the virus that infected your symbiote. It's how we got it off of Flash Thompson in the first place. But the virus only amplified what was already there, and I didn't do it just to blackmail you with the cure. You weren't even its host when that order was signed off."

She said it as if that was all there was to be said. Venom narrowed his eyes. **"Then why **_**did**_** you do it?"**

"The FBI were the ones behind it," Liz said flippantly. "I just helped them out by providing the means to an end."

"**But WHY did you do it?!" **His wild roar was sure to bring security running, if the sound of broken glass hadn't summoned them already, but he couldn't hold it in. "**Why help them?! Was it money? Some kind of contract?"**

There was a bang of doors flying open behind him, but he didn't stop staring Liz down. She was just as reluctant to look away.

"Ms Allan? Is everything alright?"

Eventually, Liz gave in and looked past Venom- as much as she could when he took up so much of her vision- to the security team that had just burst in. "I have this under control. Leave us."

When they were gone, when Venom heard the thunder of blood around their brains fade away, Liz flicked a hardened glare to him. "I did it because I didn't want my children growing up and idolising that _thing_ you're carrying around." She clenched her teeth when she mentioned the symbiote. "Everyone called Thompson a hero, but I still remember when that suit gave Normie nightmares. When _you_ first wore it. I didn't trust that it wouldn't do to Thompson what it did to you, so… when some important friends gave me the opportunity to separate him from that thing, I took it."

Venom pulled away from her, dragging his claws back as he did with an ugly screech against the wood. His disgusted sneer filled the grooves he left with saliva. **"All you did was drive the symbiote away from him, to someone who could do a lot worse with it."**

"Not sure if you mean Lee Price or yourself." Liz crossed her arms over her chest, daring him to strike her for that. To prove that she was right about him, about both Eddie and Symby.

In a way, she _was _right. She was right back then, but she wouldn't be right again. They were better now. They would _be _better.

When it was clear that he wouldn't take the bait, Liz let the mask of disapproval dissolve. "Eddie, I understand you're upset by this, but I had you cured fully for a reason. If I didn't, you'd have been in the pocket of someone much _much_ worse than me."

Venom knew exactly who that was. **"Norman Osborn."**

For the very first time, Liz was actually surprised. "How did you…?"

"**Same way we found out you infected us."**

Still blank-faced and wide-eyed, Liz could only nod. Whether it was shock at him knowing what was going on or at _anyone _knowing, he couldn't tell. But he saw his chance in that shock. He stood back, letting the symbiote free his head. He didn't need to scare her now, and he doubted he could anyway. He just needed to talk to her.

"What is he planning, Liz?"

She didn't say anything, not before pulling something from a drawer in her desk. Eddie tensed, expecting something like a gun or taser. But she only held a lighter in her hand, with a cigarette in her mouth to go with it. She breathed, gulping down as much of the smoke before she had to push it back out. And she spoke from somewhere far away.

"He came to me a few months ago. Said he had a plan in place to eradicate all organised crime in the city."

"And you believed him?" Eddie asked.

"He said it wasn't for him. It was… for Normie. My son. _His_ grandson. Not just to keep him safe, but to help Alchemax grow without supervillains getting in the way. He knew Harry and I had left the company to Normie."

"In case a certain supervillain ever came back to take you both out?"

"In case of _anything_. Not just if the Goblin came back." She tapped off the build-up of ash before taking another deep breath. Eddie waited until she'd filled her lungs, ignoring Symby's lament that they must have tasted terrible, before pressing her further.

"What did he tell you his plan was?"

"He claimed he could infiltrate the city's gangs, the whole criminal underground. I figured he'd done it once before, so he could do it again. But this time, he said it was to destroy them. Once he did that, I wouldn't have to worry about my company being destroyed one day by some freak in a mask with a chip on their shoulder. I… I wouldn't have to worry about my kids so much. I could sleep at night knowing that they wouldn't be snatched off the street or eaten alive or…" It was impossible to list all the possible ways to die in New York, so she didn't try any further than that. Or, more likely, she knew every single way off by heart and didn't have the strength to voice them out loud. As if, by giving them voice, she was admitting how likely they were to happen. Eddie had seen most of them himself, and he couldn't argue against that logic.

"What changed your mind?" he asked. To his horror, she flinched. Even had to start another cigarette before she could answer. It was going to be bad.

"...Have you seen the news recently?"

"Bits and pieces."

"You might have heard that Alchemax helped in a government-funded space retrieval project." When she shook the ash off, her fingers trembled. "Last week, I found out just what it was that they were _retrieving_." She breathed in the cloud of death, her voice thick with it. Or maybe that was just because of what she had to tell him.

"The body of Cletus Kasady."


	9. Night 5 Part 2

Eddie heard her. He heard her, but he also didn't. Symby was screaming too loud. Or maybe it was him. Maybe it was just his blood roaring. Or maybe it was Cletus himself, taunting him all over again. Of all the people, of all the _creatures_ in the galaxy, of all the fucking things that could have happened him tonight, it had to be carnage.

No matter how much he controlled himself, it always ended in Carnage.

When the truth sank in and he fell back into the cold water of the cruel present, he was surprised to find that he was still standing. He might have blacked out. He couldn't tell how long Liz had been waiting for his reaction, but she didn't seem impatient. If anything, she was still getting over having to know about it.

Eddie exhaled deeply, blowing against the smoke leaking out between her fingers, and tried not to yell. He really, really tried not to.

"Why the hell would they bring _him_ back to Earth?!"

Liz helped herself to one last drag before stubbing the cigarette out. "Would you rather a superpowered serial killer was locked down somewhere you could keep an eye on him, or floating out in space completely unchecked? Obviously they didn't want to take any chances." That was the conclusion she must have drawn from the madness, cause it sure as he didn't sound like anyone else had thought it through well enough. Eddie sighed again, having to stay calm for Symby. For both of them, but Symby especially.

"What did they do with the body?"

"They didn't get the chance to _do_ anything," Liz told him. "Not before it was... stolen. By Norman."

Just when Eddie thought he'd numbed himself to anything else that could have come that night, once again he was proven wrong. "What do you mean _stolen?_"

Liz rubbed at her forehead, fending off the same headache that had been plaguing him all evening. "I mean, somehow he knew the body was being collected before I did and _somehow _he got his hands on it. He told me all about it, and I saw the body myself. He was keeping it in my basement this whole time…"

The basement. As in, the very building they were in. Every time Eddie had walked in the front door, he'd unwittingly been walking over his mortal enemy. And he didn't even know he was there. Didn't even sense him, or the symbiote that was once a part of him as Symby was, if only for the briefest moment before it detached and crawled into the arms of a serial killer. Sometimes Eddie wondered, if Carnage had found someone else, _anyone _else, it might have turned out differently. Other times he found it easier to accept that it was doomed from the start.

"Is he still down there?" he asked.

Liz was grateful to shake her head. "As soon as I found out, I told Norman to get him the hell out of my building. I don't know where it is now, and I don't care. All that matters to me is that he's far away from here."

Eddie wasn't nearly so easily placated. "Liz, that psychopath could be _anywhere_ now!" The only thing worse than one psycho in hiding was one being hidden by _another _psycho.

"I know that." Liz blew a stream of fresh smoke out, not so much aiming it towards him as just not stopping it from going in his face. "But at least he's not here and, if we're lucky, he won't be Carnage anymore. Norman had Anti-Ve… _Agent_ Anti-Venom purge him while he was here." She corrected herself while Eddie was trying to pull back his rage, all while it was being flushed out by confusion.

"Norman spoke to Flash?" For someone who was supposed to be in hiding, Osborn didn't really seem to care who saw him. There was being a psycho, and then there was just being stupid.

"Not quite," Liz answered, only confusing Eddie even further. "From what Thompson told me afterwards, _I _was the one who asked him to come down and cure a symbiote. He didn't know who it was he was curing, and he didn't question that it was really me. I don't even know if he met Norman face to face, but somehow Norman was able to convince him he was me." She sounded as baffled by it as Eddie felt, holding her head heavily in her hand while the other one held her second cigarette.

"And just how did he manage to pull that off?" Eddie asked, ready to believe just about anything. That Osborn was a Skrull all along, or that he stole some kind of shapeshifting technology as well as a serial killer's body, or maybe even he just had a really good make-up team-

But the answer he got was the most mundane one of the entire night.

"...I don't know," Liz admitted. "There's something… _wrong_ with him."

"You mean even more than usual?" Eddie scoffed.

"He hasn't shown any symptoms of Goblin Formula, but… God, I just know _something_ is wrong. I don't have any way to tell what it is, but I know it's bad."

Of course it was bad. This was Norman fucking Osborn they were talking about.

"Might have something to do with this plan of his," Eddie suggested.

"I _know _it does. For all I know he's not infiltrating the gangs to take them down. He wants to take them for _himself_. Goblin Nation reborn." Liz took her longest drag so far at the thought of that. The fact that she hadn't considered any of this before making a deal with her insane father-in-law told Eddie that she was either very stupid, or very desperate. Though the two were rarely mutually exclusive.

"Where is Norman now?"

Liz sighed. "I don't know. He only comes here if he needs somewhere to meet his goons. But he hasn't shown since two days ago, so I can only assume he has most of them on autopilot."

Eddie raised an eyebrow, silently demanding further explanation.

"They're all split up into two teams," Liz went on. "Networking, and distraction. The networkers talk to the gangs and try to get close to them, while the distractors go around the city doing petty crimes to keep all the heroes busy."

Eddie narrowed his eyes, while Symby churned behind them. "If that was Osborn's intent all along, then why was he surprised when Venom showed up?"

Liz finished her cigarette before delivering her verdict. "He must not consider you a hero." She was watching for his reaction again, counting the seconds between him being calm and finding his hands around her neck. His fingers did twitch, but Symby wrapped around them. Gluing them together, making sure they didn't do anything they'd both regret.

"So not only did you help destroy something good," Eddie told her, "you brought back something evil to replace it." His judgement sat heavy in his throat, like the hard lumps of tar blooming in Liz's lungs at that very second. Feeling it lodged there was only slightly less tolerable than she usually was.

"You're the last person who should be lecturing me about evil, Brock," she said, the disdain in her sneer placing all three of them back at square one. Eddie had heard enough. He let the symbiote crawl over his ears, latching onto his scowl with its teeth and masking his rage as he stepped over the broken glass on the ground.

"**This is the last time we clean up your mess, Liz. Next time, we'll just make an even bigger one." **Venom left through the shattered window without looking back, his own snarls pounding in his head as he pulled himself somewhere safe. Safe for the both of them.

His apartment was far, at least ten blocks away. Felicia's was nearer, but… that wasn't a safe place tonight. He had to settle for another rooftop, flat and deserted and just high enough off the ground that no one out this late down on the streets would hear him talking to himself. Or shouting. Just shouting to the wind. Symby melted off of him, releasing his head to give him the space he'd need.

"Cletus. Fucking. Kasady." Eddie wanted to kick something, then punch something, but with the only candidates around being made out of solid brick he just made himself deal with tearing at his own hair. "Even when you shoot him out into the void of space, he somehow comes crawling back." He felt himself falling back, sinking, gravity tugging him down… Symby forcing him to sit down before he went stumbling over the side of the roof, pulling on his limbs and encasing them in its warm self. No matter how strong he made himself, his muscles always gave in to the symbiote.

"_**It must have been what I sensed around Norman**_**," **Symby said, its surface roiling like an angry black ocean. "_**The familiar evil…"**_

Eddie tried to soothe his other as it cradled him, wreathing his fingers through its head. "But Liz said his symbiote was purged."

"_**It lingers long after it's gone. I know this." **_They both knew it. It had come back so often that Eddie didn't believe that it was ever truly 'gone'. The only thing that made this time any different was that Kasady's symbiote had likely been devoured by the Poison anyway, and any traces of it would have been wiped out by Anti-Venom's touch. He knew how powerful it was. He'd felt symbiotes, even his own, almost die just from a few seconds of exposure.

But he'd never used it on Carnage. He'd never had the chance to.

Eddie squeezed eyes shut, and let the wall at his back hit against his head as he arched his neck back. He knew Cletus would come back. Even when he saw his Poison-crusted body spinning out into the vacuum of the universe, he knew even then that he'd see him again. Some twisted, undead version of him that was somehow even more twisted than he normally was. He'd been prepared for that. He'd seen some version of it enough in his nightmares to not fear it. Knowing that it was just Cletus this time, just the man and not his symbiote, somehow made him even more terrified than he ever remembered being. Carnage was Venom's son, _their _son, but Cletus was just a monster all by himself.

Assuming he even _was _by himself.

Eddie closed his eyes, sweating in the cold wind and shivering in the heat of his fury. It wouldn't go away. It just wouldn't fucking go away. There it sat gnawing behind his eyes, buried in his skull, almost winning against the voice of his other.

"_**Eddie?"**_ Symby nudged his scruffy cheek, wrapping its lithe self around his neck to cushion it. He couldn't feel it in his head prodding his neurons, but his distress was impossible to hide. Even so, he still did his best to mask it.

"I'm fine, love. I'm fine... " He sighed, leaning his head into the symbiotes'. Though it couldn't negate his despair, its oily warmth at least helped fight against the chill of the night. "I just wish everyone would stop fucking lying to us."

Symby made one of its alien sounds, the ones that not even Eddie had a word to describe. He knew what most of them meant, though. This one was a signal of confusion. "_**Liz was telling the truth. That still made you angry."**_

"I prefer being angry over what I know rather than what I _don't_ know." He really preferred not being angry at all, but after so long he'd gotten used to being nothing but.

"_**Felicia told the truth, too," **_Symby added. Eddie didn't know why he flinched at the sound of her name. Maybe because he knew how close he- not Symby or Venom, _he_\- had come to hurting her again. Breaking something. Not just her nose this time. His fingers still twitched when he remembered trapping her hair in their grip, and the disgust he still felt at himself for it was like acid bathing his brain.

Maybe it was as much his own fault that the symbiote became so feral with him as it was anyone else's.

"...Yeah," Eddie admitted. "It just came a lot later than it should have." He sighed again, pulling a hand through his hair as symbiote tendrils reached up his neck. He could still smell her shampoo. He'd meant to ask her where she bought it from. He'd meant to shave last night, too. He'd meant to do a lot of things.

"How did you know she was hiding it?" he asked. Symby went silent, its tendrils pulling back from his head. Eddie got the feeling that he was about to be told another truth he'd rather not know.

"_**...The bond she had with my clone still lingers,"**_ Symby told him. "_**I can sense things from her. I can… talk to her."**_

Eddie felt relief flood his veins almost as fast as Symby did. Not nearly as bad as whatever he'd been braced for. "So that's what you two have been doing when I'm not around."

"_**Didn't want to hide it," **_Symby gurgled. "_**But... didn't want you getting jealous, either."**_

"I'm _not_ jealous, I…" Eddie bit his lip, stifling the fresh wave of frustration before it could take root. "I just don't want to lose you to anyone again."

He heard Symby purr, caressing his face with a gentle swarm of tendrils. "_**I'm not going anywhere, love." **_

Eddie let himself smile, knowing it was telling the absolute truth. Symby would never abandon him. Never lie to him. Never let him be hurt without consequence. It would take all that he had to carry, be it pain or sorrow or the anger that so often mixed with the two, and ask only for all the love he could give in return.

Even so… he just wished that his other wasn't the only one deserving of it. The only one on Earth, maybe in the whole galaxy. Symby had only given him glimpses of its own cosmic adventures without him, after the memory flood that he'd endured when they finally reunited. He hadn't decided if that was because it didn't like to remember them too much, or if it was to avoid overwhelming him. But from what little he'd seen. Klyntar weren't treated with much more respect outside of Earth. All they had now was each other. Rejected by their own kind, all they _needed_ was each other. Every other Klyntar Symby had met or even spawned had tried to destroy it, and every other human Eddie knew…

Well, _almost _every human. One had given him a chance, and he'd snarled in her face. Regardless of whether she'd deserved it, whether she was right or wrong, he'd just went and proved everyone like Liz right.

Maybe it wasn't too late. Maybe he could still salvage himself. Assuming Felicia would let him, on top of so much else that he couldn't be sure of.

"_**I'm still listening, Eddie." **_Symby didn't like interrupting his thoughts, but it seemed to sense that a question was about to bubble out of them before Eddie even fully put it together.

"...When you were Parker's suit, he and Felicia were dating," he said.

"_**Yes." **_That was another time that the symbiote didn't show him much of. Then again, he'd never thought to ask to see any of it. Maybe he should have.

"Do you… remember anything from back then?" he asked. "Anything about her?"

The symbiote thought for a moment. "_**She took photos for him**_," it said. "_**And she was a very good kisser."**_

Eddie rolled his eyes. "I don't mean _that_ kind of stuff, I mean… was she trustworthy?" It was a question that he should have asked five nights ago, but he'd been so eager to prove that Venom was more than a villain that he'd all but forgotten about Symby's life before him. This time, Symby took longer to find the answer.

"_**...Yes," **_it said. "_**At one point, the spider trusted her with his life. But… I don't know if **_**we** _**can trust her anymore. She may not have lied, but she did hide it from us. She had no right to. We deserved to know..." **_As Symby trailed off, it sounded far more disappointed than betrayed. As if its prior experience with the Cat hadn't made it blind to how she was just as likely as anyone else to turn on them. Though… that hadn't happened. And she'd looked so hurt when they left her behind that, however optimistic it was to hope, he doubted that it _would _happen. Almost as if she'd forgiven him for what Venom did so long ago.

This was one of those moments, neither common nor rare, were Eddie and Symby didn't completely agree with each other. Symby didn't know that just yet, though. It was still waiting for Eddie's verdict, patiently staying outside his thought stream to let him process everything by himself.

"The fact that she told us about it at all proves something, though," he eventually said.

"_**Proves what?"**_

"That she hid it for our own good." Eddie breathed, letting Symby take over his lungs. "If you were still… infected when she told us, there's no knowing what we might have done knowing all of that. We might have actually killed Liz." Not to mention that they might have killed Felicia herself… Eddie didn't want to think of that possibility.

"_**But we didn't,"**_ Symby insisted. "_**I held back. Despite how much she hurt us, I held back."**_

"You did. And I'm proud of you. But if you _weren't_ able to..." Eddie let the grisly possibilities hang on the air, like kidneys hanging from black claws. Painful to think of. Impossible not to. Symby went silent for a long moment, though just weeks ago it would have thought of even worse.

"_**...We shouldn't have yelled at Felicia," **_it muttered.

"I know."

"_**We should go apologise."**_

"Not tonight. We'll only upset her more."

"_**I... don't understand." **_Of course it didn't. It didn't have much experience with the females of the species it was bonded to.

"If we go to her too soon," Eddie explained, "it won't look like a real apology. We need enough time to feel shitty about it first." He'd learned that the hard way a long, long time ago. In another life, when he'd loved something else.

"_**I see…"**_ Symby rumbled. "_**Humans are still so strange to me."**_

Eddie let out a weak smile. "You and me both, love." He tried to stand, helped by Symby lining his spine, but when he walked forward it tried to tug against him.

"_**You're exhausted, darling,**_" it gurgled, stopping him from stumbling in a rush of vertigo from being upright so suddenly. "_**Let's go home. You need to rest."**_

Eddie shook his head even as it pounded like a hammer in his skull. "Can't let the night go to waste… Norton's killer might still be out there." They might have already had the chance to kill again while he was sat moping because he remembered how terrible he really was.

"_**We can find them later," **_Symby insisted. "_**When you're able to think clearly. Please."**_

God, he hated when it had to beg like that. He sighed one last time.

"Okay…okay." He didn't remember much of the journey home. Symby only kept him awake long enough for him to climb into bed and, hopefully, not dream.


	10. Night 6

Felicia didn't bother with suiting up that night. She sat at her dressing table in nothing fancier than a shirt and shorts, the surface in front of her covered with the kind of blueprints and news clippings commonly found in a thief's planning arsenal, and she pouted. Not just because she struggled to fit all the pieces together into something that made any sense. Not just because she'd been staring at it all for over an hour, eyes straining to find the gaps and how they were supposed to be filled.

No, she was pouting for something much more petty, petty even for her. She didn't like being yelled at. She especially didn't like it from someone who she so selflessly let use her bathroom. Even though she knew she deserved it, even though Eddie and the symbiote had every right to hate her… deep down she still was, and always would be, a bit of a spoiled brat. And that brat did _not like being yelled at._

She fell into the same strategy she'd used since childhood. If she couldn't scream back ten times louder, she'd stomp and sulk and lock herself away in the mindset that anyone would miss her company enough to apologise for daring to slight her.

It didn't happen, of course. All she'd accomplish for her efforts was an afternoon wasted sitting silent in her room, her baby-fat filled face aching from scowling so much. She eventually grew out of it, mostly, once she was old enough to simply have all her complaints dismissed with gifts. She blamed her mother for that. So stingy with apologies, especially those that Felicia actually deserved, yet lavish with just about everything else even when she couldn't afford it. After just a few years of that, the end result was a daughter who always expected something in return for her cooperation and a mother who was, for some reason, shocked when that daughter eventually set out to take whatever she wanted when she got tired of waiting to be given it.

Once she knew she could have anything she was brave enough to steal, the gifts meant nothing to her. Either you grovelled for her forgiveness, or you were dead to her. That was how she liked to keep it, at least. Only some people were excused from that duty. Very, very few people. Peter had once been one of them. She'd since learned from that mistake. Now she hoarded grudges as well as stolen goods. It suited her better.

Even so, with all that in mind, she really should have expected the knock on the window before it came, the curtains slightly shifting away from the glass as it shook.

"Felicia?"

She inclined her head towards Eddie's voice, acknowledging the lump in his throat that seemed to split his question apart, as if both the tones bundled into Venom's usual growls were now separated and strung out in the air. She heard the two of them, but she did not move. He'd never seemed like the grovelling type, so maybe he was here to kill her. He was doing a very poor job of it already, ruining his element of surprise. Felicia briefly scanned her room for a weapon, settling on using herself just as he spoke again.

"We're sorry for… screaming in your face. We know why you kept it from us, and we're not angry about it anymore. We're kinda stuck to the building wall right now, so we'd appreciate if you'd let us in before someone sees."

Felicia stood perfectly balanced, facing the window, fully prepared to defend herself, only to have her fighting stance squandered. She didn't know if she was more annoyed at that or at herself for immediately thinking Eddie was here with violence on the mind- even more so than usual, at least. She had to get out of the habit of assuming everyone was out to kill her. After all, she didn't have much worth killing over nowadays.

She also had to remind herself that he wasn't the same monster she'd first met years ago, with the kiss of his fist in her face. She wasn't the same woman from then, after all. The only difference was that whatever wrong she had done couldn't be blamed on a diseased alien in her bloodstream.

So, Eddie wasn't here for anything like that. Or, if he was, he hiding it well. He'd actually managed to sound sorry, so much that any other night she might have opened the window for him by now. Even so, the brat in her screamed that it wasn't genuine, that he was only here because he'd started this job with her and he wasn't about to let it drop because of her. But what more did she want? He'd apologised. He'd said it as face-to-face as he could manage. It was almost like how her father would long ago try to coax her out of her room after a tantrum. All that was missing was his knowing, firm voice, and a little something to tempt her into relinquishing her stubborn scowl.

Not that some kind of offering would have actually made much differe-

"We brought food," Eddie called out.

Felicia snapped to her feet.

"...What kind of food?" she called back, admitting to herself that maybe some gifts still had an effect on her. There was another tap on the window, softer this time, and she pulled the curtain aside. He must have been stuck to the wall at the side of the window, since all she could see was his outstretched hand and the box it held, chopsticks sticking up out of it in a cloud of steam. She recognised the name on the side of it, Chinese text beneath the restaurant name, and the sight of it made her very aware that she hadn't eaten since she'd set to work at her table when it was still light outside.

"You're lucky I like noodles," she told him, bringing the food in before it got cold and leaving the window open for him.

"Everyone likes noodles. It's why we got them." He pulled himself inside with what was now a familiar ease as she cradled the warm box in her chilly palms. It smelled so good… she was about to take a blind mouthful when, through the slits of her eyes, she saw that Eddie stood empty-handed.

"You not having any?" she asked, still hovering a chopstick-clutch of noodles near her lips. He seemed surprised that she'd noticed, from how he rubbed the back of his neck. Or maybe he just felt awkward, having yelled at her face just last night to now be standing here watching her stuff it.

"No, I… we ate earlier today," he said with a shrug of broad shoulders. "It's all for you."

Felicia returned his shrug just before she shoveled the sticks into her mouth. Chicken… soy sauce... little pieces of egg hidden in the noodle nests. All of it gratefully savoured. How did he manage to get her favourite? Maybe Symby saw it flash somewhere in her brain and told him. Was this how it felt when she gave it chocolate?

She saw Eddie smile in the haze of her flavour reverie, and only then realised she was moaning out loud. She gulped it down before she embarrassed herself any further, holding a hand up to suppress a burp. She set the box down on her table, just aside from the patchwork she'd been building all day, letting herself just have two more quick bites beforehand to ease her empty belly.

"Since I didn't see anything about it on the news, I-" A small belch interrupted her, a flare of red in her cheeks ruining her attempt to wave it off. "I'm guessing you _didn't_ throw Liz out of her office window after all?"

Eddie was still smiling at her embarrassment, leaning back against the wall near the window, but it faltered now. "She admitted to making whatever it was that made Symby feral," he told her, "but she didn't specifically make for us. Apparently it was to force it to leave Flash, so that the FBI could capture it."

Felicia nodded, trying to fit that in with what she already knew. But she'd spent so long that day doing exactly that with only assumptions and guesses that the attempt gave her a headache. She let herself eat until it faded away into the background noise.

"And you didn't know about this when you worked for them?" she asked.

"I didn't so much 'work for' them as 'was forced into doing whatever the hell they wanted', but… yeah. I never heard about it." He looked away as he crossed his arms over his chest, and Felicia quickly realised why. He didn't want her seeing whatever kind of regret was contorting that handsome face into something ugly, as ugly as the rage he was trying to hide beneath his skin. Maybe it was Symby rippling under his epidermis, both containing the anger and channeling it throughout his body rather than outwith it. And maybe it was the thing keeping him in check, rather than forcing the worst parts of him to bubble up and burst out of him like acid through his pores.

After the night she imagined he'd just had without her, she didn't blame him for struggling to keep it all dammed up.

"If I'd known what it all meant, I would have shown you it earlier." Felicia didn't know how much difference it really would have made, but she felt like it had to be said. If only to prove that she knew she'd fucked up too.

"It's just as well you didn't," Eddie admitted, still not quite looking at her but at least swivelling his neck back around. "If we went into that kind of rage while we weren't cured… being thrown out the window would have been the least of Liz's worries."

"Even so. It wasn't really my place to keep it from you." She idly stirred the bottom of the noodle box, sharp black pepper seasoning still tingling on her lips even when she licked them clean. A sense of guilt seeped in like a stone thrown down in her stomach, swelling to fill the rest of the hungry space and almost spoil her appetite.

Eddie pushed himself off the wall, and levelled his gaze at her. No distortion, no glare, no scowl or even a frown. Felicia hadn't realised how rare it was to see him without one until that moment, once he was within arms length of her.

"No more secrets, Felicia," he declared. "If we're really gonna work together, we have to be honest with each other so this doesn't happen again."

She cocked her head. "So no more free food?"

He gave her a look that almost made her choke on her mouthful from a splutter of laughter. "Alright, alright. I agree." She set the box down again now that it was empty. "But that means you don't hide anything from me either." She thought it was reasonable, but Eddie's eyes looked away again and the symbiote in his clothes seemed to flinch against his body.

"...You have something to tell me, don't you?" she asked.

Eddie sighed. "You're gonna want to sit down for this one." He helped himself to a seat of his own, taking her dressing table chair to face her (even as it creaked under his huge frame) while she sat on the edge of her bed.

"Is it too late to take my end of the deal back?" She joked though the fear she felt was very real, making her slightly nauseous with the threat of bile almost spoiling the lovely meal she just had. But whatever it was, she'd be much worse off if she didn't know about it.

"The… 'space retrieval' mission that Alchemax helped with," Eddie said slowly, rubbing at his chin to try and ease the tense muscles threaded throughout his face. For some reason, she only now noticed that he'd shaved since last night. That only offered the most minimal distraction from what he forced himself to tell her.

"Turns out that it… was to get Cletus Kasady's body out from space."

He dropped the bomb, and Felicia's stomach dropped too as the nausea surged like a tidal wave of bile through her. "_What_?!"

"And it gets worse."

Somehow it actually did. Eddie told her how Osborn had apparently stolen, _stolen! _the psychopath's body, had tricked Flash into curing him of whatever it was that was keeping him alive in space, and how he was keeping Cletus' comatose body as some kind of souvenir. Never mind why the hell anyone would think bringing him back was a good idea, or how pitiful the security around him must have been for Osborn to obtain the body. He was here, on the planet, in this very city, soaking up more and more bloodlust with each day.

By the time Eddie mercifully finished talking, Felicia was shaking. She could almost feel her bones rattling, the marrow deep inside them curdling.

"Jesus fucking Christ…" She bent over with her head in her hands, breathing deeply through her nose while the tumble of her hair masked how much effort it was taking not to throw up. Even when she recovered, pulling her hair back as she forced her head back up, she still felt lightheaded even though she was sitting.

"So not only is Osborn making some kind of move on The Hood and God knows who else, he's got a superpowered serial killer in his basement?!"

"Hopefully not superpowered anymore," Eddie corrected far too calmly, as if that made any of it even remotely more palatable.

"Eddie, how often has Kasady _supposedly_ lost the symbiote before only to have it constantly come back?!" It really was like a virus, or a weed that would mince your organs if you got too close.

"Carnage has never gone against Anti-Venom, though," Eddie said, sounding like he was trying to sell himself on it as much as he was her. "If whatever Thompson has now is the same as what I had before, then it killed whatever was left of Carnage in him." He'd clearly been thinking a lot about it, trying to rationalise that the situation couldn't really be as bad as it must have really been. As if he actually believed there was any chance they weren't all in mortal danger. The naivety didn't suit him.

"So we only have to worry about a _normal _serial killer who could be literally anywhere in the city, on top of everything else. Great." Felicia resisted the urge to collapse back onto her bed in defeat, but only for a second. The mattress sank under the heavy dread in her bones.

"I'm not letting them get away with this, though." She saw Eddie standing up now, starting to pace as he preached to himself. "Liz admitted _right to my face_ that she knows who stole the body, and she probably even has a good idea of where it is. The government were the ones who brought him here in the first place, and if that news got out they'd wouldn't be able to cover it up without giving up the chance to track it down-"

"Did you get any kind of record of her admitting it?" Felicia asked towards the ceiling. She was glad to see Eddie passionate about something, but as was her habit she had to go and ruin it for him.

"...FUCK!" She felt the bed jolt as his foot collided with the frame, and she shot up with a glare.

"Don't kick my bed!"

"Sorry, sorry, I just…" Eddie clenched his teeth as he tore at his hair, not bothering to hide the contortion of this expression. She was sure she even saw black flashing across his skin, fangs rising out of his jawline before sinking back into his muscles.

"You're angry, both of you. I get it." She stood up, and when she brushed past his shoulder she could feel how Symby churned in his muscles. "But I'd say it's just as well you didn't. If we expose Norman too early before we know for sure what his endgame is, then he might make some kind of move we aren't prepared for."

Eddie let out a sigh, like the hiss of a radiator releasing steam, and kept his hands secured on his hips where they wouldn't try to lash out at anything. "Right. Right… so what _are _we supposed to do?"

Felicia thought for a moment before going to her table, bundling up the most important pieces of the puzzle in her hands and handing them off to him. "Same thing we've being doing until now. Start from the outside, and work our way in."

Eddie cocked an eyebrow as he flicked through the notes she'd spent all day making, and their referenced news clippings. "What's this?"

Despite how the Kasady news had shaken her, Felicia couldn't help letting out a proud smile.

"It's what I think is Killer Shrike's crime pattern over the last month. All these hits involved some kind of electrical shortage or attack, too controlled to be Eel's doing. They were inconsistent, so I didn't bother trying to track Shrike through them. But here's the weird thing. Arrests were made at each scene, but none of the people captured would have been capable of that kind of damage." That was the biggest gap in the picture she was trying to make. The Shrike she knew wouldn't have done all the work only to let someone else profit off of it, regardless of whoever he worked for.

Eddie skimmed over the articles, eyes flashing as they darted across the pages. He seemed impressed at all the work she'd done.

"Maybe it's some kind of team effort," he suggested. "He only sticks around long enough to leave his mark, and gets out before cops show up.

"I considered that. But then why bother if his partners always get arrested? He doesn't get anything out of it."

Eddie bit his lip, as puzzled as she'd been for hours, but then his eyes suddenly abandoned the pages. Flicking up, flashing again as he muttered.

"Distraction…"

Felicia cocked an eyebrow, waiting for him to explain.

"Liz told us that Osborn has his people split into two groups. One is for infiltrating gangs like The Hood's, the other is for keeping the superheroes busy. That's why all these guys got caught. It's not about trying to steal anything, it's about making enough noise that you draw attention away from what you're _really_ doing."

Felicia blinked, and hated that it made perfect sense. "Son of a bitch…" She rubbed her forehead, wanting to fall down on her bed all over again. "So how are we supposed to know what are legit crimes and what are just distraction ops? And how are we supposed to trace any of it back to whatever's really going on?"

Eddie tried to find an answer for her, but something else got his attention. The peal of police sirens outside, getting louder and shriller the closer they came down the street. They faded after some seconds, but not by much.

"_That_ sounds legit enough to me," he said, angling his head to look past the window behind him.

"Sounds like they stopped just a few blocks away, too," Felicia added. After so long spent in the city of supers, one developed the acute ability of being able to tell what kind of crime was currently taking place down their street. If the sirens went by only for a second, it was a high speed chase. If they lingered, it was likely a robbery. She was itching to see what worth being stolen in her turf that she hadn't already pinched.

"I have an idea," Eddie said. "You got a notepad anywhere?"

"Sure. Why?" Felicia didn't keep her confusion a secret as she handed one from her dresser to him.

"You'll see. Wear your suit just in case." He was going for the window again, already halfway to Venom, clearly not intending to explain any further. Felicia rolled her eyes. He was lucky she was going to put it on anyway.

"I'm more used to men asking me to take it off rather than put it on," she quipped, heading for its home in her closet's secret compartment.

"Well, you gotta put it on in the first place before anyone can do that," Eddie said with a smirk, perched on the window frame. "We'll be on the roof." He jerked a claw upwards as Venom's maw swallowed his head and he leapt up the wall.

Felicia heard him, but it didn't actually register until she was pulling the suit on. Not only did he smile at the joke, he'd actually returned it. If she didn't know any better, she'd have even said he was flirting with her.

But she of all people did know better by now. She brushed her hair through her claws once, not wanting to keep the monster above waiting too long.


	11. Night 6 Part 2

Felicia didn't know what Venom had in mind, and couldn't even ask him while he was leaping across the streets so quickly, flying over grit roofs and intersections and trusting her to keep up with him. He only looked back when he stopped above the scene swarming with police sirens, the red and blue light shimmering on his symbiote skin like flashes across a puddle of oil. Once she took a second to catch her breath, Felicia looked across the small street at what the police had went so fast to get to- and was disappointed.

"Hardware robbery," she said. "How amateur." The thief must have been someone building their own equipment or getting supplies for someone else. Which meant they either couldn't afford to buy their gear, or they simply didn't know where to buy it from. That was a common issue amongst newbies, those so determined to work alone that they didn't last longer than a month before they gave up the work- or their life.

"**Looks like whoever did it managed to get away, too," **Venom added, and he was right from how the police officers simply milled about the front of the store and cordoned off the wreckage with yellow tape. As one of them stepped over the sign knocked off its chain during the robbery, Felicia realised just how much mess there really was for what should have been a simple hit. Either the guy behind it was clumsy as hell, or they deliberately made a scene before they fled for the police to puzzle over. Distracting them from anything else they might have otherwise gone after that night. Exactly like the kind of hits she'd been going over just before Venom showed up.

"This store, though… it fits the pattern of the others I think were hit by Killer Shrike," Felicia said. "Which means that 'whoever' is probably working for Osborn."

Venom grinned, his saliva catching the red and blue lightshow below them. "**And that means this is worth a closer look."**

"How do you propose we do that when there's police all over the front door?" There were only three she could see, but just one spotting them was all it would have taken to waste the evening. Felicia could have probably managed it herself, assuming they were only guarding the outside of the place, but-

"That's where my brilliant idea comes in." The symbiote had pulled back until Eddie was left kneeling next to her, grabbing her attention with his borrowed notepad. "There are some things Eddie Brock can do that Venom can't, like distracting the police while you sneak in and see what you can find."

Felicia raised an eyebrow. "You sound confident."

"I can be very distracting when I want to be."

The eyebrow went higher. With a body like his wrapped in skintight black so often, she couldn't really argue with that. Even though that probably wasn't what he meant by it.

"Alright. You go do your thing and I'll go do mine's." Felicia waited until he descended down to street level, watching him approach the crime scene with what could only be described as a kind of complete and utter arrogance he must have practiced to attain, before she made her move closer to the store. She judged how far she could go across one of the adjacent roofs before being spotted, and stopped just before that point. Below her, one of the officers at the yellow tape line finally noticed Eddie coming near.

"Back off, buddy. Scene's off limits."

At once, his arrogance seemed to dissolve into something much less threatening, almost meek as he flipped open the notepad. "I know. Just here to report on it. What exactly happened?"

It was quite jarring, knowing this was the same man who she knew could decapitate every single officer present in the time it would take her to blink. But when she did blink, all the heads were still intact, and they were all focused on him. Just as he'd planned.

Felicia smiled, and gave him five minutes of being able to keep it up. That should have given her enough time to sift through whatever wreckage was waiting for her inside.

Sadly there were no convenient windows this high up on the building. She had to sneak over the roof while the officers' backs were turned and drop down to the ground, making do with the back door. Eddie did a good enough job of drawing attention that she managed to flit across the open space between cover and the door in seconds, flattening herself against the wall until she was sure no one had seen. When there was no shout or stamp of boots on the pavement after her she pushed on the broken handle and slipped inside, keeping it propped open just a crack behind her.

Once she was inside, the persistent cruiser lights outside giving her flashes of illumination through the broken front windows, she didn't know where the hell to start. It was a small store, but the mess made it seem twice as large. Displays were flipped over, stock strewn across the floor, heavy tools threatening to trip her up as she went further into the staged chaos. Her contact lenses only helped her so much; just because you could see better in the dark didn't make finding anything in it any easier, especially if you didn't know what you were even looking for. She couldn't even tell what had been stolen… though that was the whole point of leaving such a scene behind. Let the cops sift through the wreck and scramble to find out what you'd just gotten away with. She'd done it more than enough times herself to know how effective it was. So maybe this guy wasn't such an amateur after all.

Felicia had already wasted a minute on assessing the damage, trying to find what she could move and investigate without making too much noise. She tried the register first, unsurprised to see it cleared out. Then she tried the backroom, but it was impeccable compared to how it was out front, barely a slip of paper out of place in the filing cabinets she skimmed through. Then she scanned the floor again, twice and a third time, over the hammers and wrenches and a toppled stack of toolboxes-

She blinked, clearing her contacts to make sure what she was seeing wasn't just a smudge of light amongst the metal, and whispered to herself.

"What have we here…?" Something was trapped underneath the lowest box. Flat, lined, crumpled by more than just the weight of what was on top of it. She slipped the paper out, seeing that it was folded over on itself twice to mask how big it really was. It wasn't the same kind used for the store's paperwork, more like it was torn out of a cheap notebook, and it bore scraggly writing in black ink that she could only barely decipher after squinting at it.

'_WR, Petsco, Sat; Bmrg; KR build, 2 wks; 2x Grims…' _There was more, but it was all equal gibberish to her. Maybe a note about an order or some kind of business shorthand. She checked the back out of reflex, and only saw a single scribble with three thick lines scored underneath it.

_16/09/2018, CENTRAL (W), 11PM_

It was the 7th now, but she still didn't know how it was supposed to help her. Or if it even could. She was about to crumple it further and toss it aside when the door behind her creaked.

Vaulting behind the counter in a second, Felicia sucked in a breath and kept it coiled in her chest while she strained to hear. Light footsteps, heavy breathing… the rustle of spandex as the newcomer crept onwards behind her. She recognised the sounds, and almost gave up on her breath in a sigh. Of all the nights for Peter to pick up the slack and do his job properly… at least it'd be easy enough to get away from him. If she tried to sneak out, his spider senses would set him off and make him lash out. Better to just show herself now and trust that he was still stupid enough to let her go with whatever excuse she could think of.

She vaulted back over the counter, landing on top of it, and watched him jump as he spun around to face her. He frowned, and she frowned even deeper. This was a spider man, but not the one she'd been prepared for.

"Tarantula? The hell are you doing here?!" She hissed to keep her voice down, and prayed the guy stuffed into stolen red spandex followed her cue. Then again, she didn't remember him being very bright. He blinked rapidly under the ridiculous cap stretched over his head, his jaw slack in its gap, as if he couldn't tell if she was really there. Wasting time looking at her while cops were busy crawling all over the outside. Yep, this one was a dumbass.

"The hell are _you_ doing here, Cat?!" Tarantula thankfully did keep his voice down. "I hit this place first! This is _my _job!"

He was still as cocky as ever. Some people really didn't change, especially those who just looked up any villain that was dead and stole their name and look before anyone else did. The look itself didn't seem like it had changed either; still the same cheap material, still with the spider on the chest that would have gotten him killed on sight in some alleyways, still with the ties dangling dangling from the back of his head begging for someone in a fight to grab for. If everything was really the same, then Felicia knew just how to deal with him. After all, she'd been his boss less than a month ago and he was calling her 'Cat', even though everyone knew who she really was. A sign of respect, maybe even a subconscious one.

"I didn't see your name anywhere outside," she said, pointing towards the windows to remind him to stay quiet. Tarantula's eyes followed the gesture as he folded into himself, as if he suddenly felt he was the only one really trespassing here.

"I... _was_ gonna do that, but we already got a guy with a graffiti gimmick. Calls himself the Tagmaster. I don't get it either." Then he shook himself, the head ties flying back and forth, as if he just remembered he wasn't on her payroll anymore. "Hey, wait, you didn't answer my question! The hell are you doing-?!"

"Cleaning up after you, it looks like." She plucked a wrench off the floor with her claws, almost threatening to drop it with a crash before simply setting it back down on the nearest surface that wasn't shoved over. Tarantula's relief that she didn't just give their position away was short lived, and quickly gave way to a scowl.

"Don't gimme that look, I got told to wreck the place!" he insisted.

Felicia let herself crook an eyebrow. "By who?" She didn't expect him, not even someone as dumb as him, to just outright tell her, but the effect was as she intended. He shook himself again, likely cursing himself for the slip-up, but at least now he'd be too busy guarding his mind to wonder much more about why she was really there.

"That don't matter," he said. "What matters is they're payin' me for this, and you showing up is gonna make 'em think I had help, and then they'll cut my pay!"

She rolled her eyes with a scoff, and she would have laughed outright if it wasn't for the need to be stealthy. "As if I'd want to take credit for any of this. It'd be embarrassing."

"Fuck you, Cat, it's good enough for the 500 they're s'posed to be giving me."

"If you did such a good job, why'd you have to come back?"

"I… dropped something." His eyes flitted in the ambient flashes of red and blue, and Felicia's widened.

"Something?" she repeated. He must have been truly desperate to get it back, whatever it was, if he was admitting it was gone. As if hoping she would help him.

"Just… something that was meant to remind me of shit. Important shit. I need it back." He was stuttering. He was _really _desperate, and he was right to be. Felicia had the wonderful, smug and superior feeling that she had found exactly what he'd lost- the torn paper, the scribbled handwriting, all in the frantic shorthand of a man who knew he shouldn't have written any of it down in the first place. If he was working for Osborn, which he almost certainly was, then the paper stuffed into her suit could be holding their next lead on whoever else was in his or Alchemax's pocket.

She just needed to get it out of there, and make sure word of Tarantula's fuck-up didn't reach Osborn. The easiest way to ensure that would be to leave him for the police, safe and sound in a jail cell. But she'd need to knock him out first. The store had too many potential weapons, and using them would bring the cops down on them like the stack of bricks she was worried he'd fling at her if she attacked too soon. She'd need to lure him out of the store, and take care of him quickly.

"Where did you last have it?" Felicia asked, making no secret of how she eyed the corner of chaos where she'd found the list.

Tarantula started, obviously not expecting her to actually offer any help. But, now seized with the hope that she might, he couldn't let go of it.

"I… I'm not sure. Might have been near the toolboxes."

"Toolboxes like this one?" She pulled her boot up on top of one of them, the one that she'd pulled aside to retrieve the paper. Tarantula's face lit up so much, rivalling the cruiser spotlights, that she almost felt bad having to tear it back down again.

"Yeah! That was the one that was open when I came in! It might be-" He was going towards it, but Felicia flipped her arm down to snatch it up before he was even halfway there, and was already at the back door when he processed what had happened.

"Hey! The fuck are you doing, Cat?!" He forgot to keep his voice down, but that hardly mattered now. They'd both be out of there in the next few seconds.

"If you're really so sure it might be in here," Felicia taunted, "come and look for yourself." She took off without looking back, grappling up to the nearest roof with her eyes on another one a few buildings away. It was difficult climbing with the empty box tucked under her arm, but she managed a few ascents before she heard Tarantula catching up with her. She stopped at the edge of the third rooftop, turning to face him while he clambered up after her with the razors on his gloves acting as climbing hooks in the walls. She used the few seconds she had before he got up to assess the store she'd left behind below- the officers were gone, and so was Eddie. Had he seen Tarantula going in after her? Or did he go off somewhere else to change into Venom? Wherever he was, she couldn't call him in for backup. If Tarantula was working for Osborn with the rest of her former employees and he saw her and Venom working together, not even he was dumb enough to not end up connecting the dots.

He was dumb enough to charge right at her though, trying to shank her with the razor on his wrist. She remembered him being pretty good at fighting, but 'pretty good' really didn't mean much against her. She dodged to one side, kicking out towards the other to send him off balance and leaning in towards where the weight of the toolbox pulled her down. She rolled before she hit the ground, tucking the box into herself and springing back onto her feet just as Tarantula recovered. He had another chance to strike her, this time going for a closed fist towards her stomach that was supposed to slam the box into her and drive the air from her lungs, but she leapt back and threw the box between his legs, so it skidded across the roof and made his punch hit empty wind. Just as he was about to spin his body around to go after the box, Felicia spun her leg up faster so that her boot cracked against his skull and sent him stumbling sideways. Another kick on the other side of his head got him on the ground, and he didn't get up.

She wiped her forehead, scratching at the thin sweat on her face with the backs of her claws. She didn't like using her hands too much to fight, mainly because cleaning her claws afterwards was always a pain in the ass. Much easier to just use the power of your legs, especially if you had stiletto heels to be stabbing into anyone who asks for it. Of course, not many guys saw all the benefits of heels, the built-in weaponry for all women able to conquer walking in them.

If they had boots, they were painfully boring, fitted with nothing more adventurous than buckles or nothing at all or...

...Or, in Tarantula's case, with the same kind of razors they had on their gloves. Felicia felt the sting in her ankle, of the razor tearing through her boot to graze the skin underneath. He had kicked out his leg just as she was walking past him, nicking her when she tripped over it. How the hell had she forgotten about those?! How...

Why…

Why was she falling? Why did her head feel so heavy? She tried to push herself back up, but… her arms wouldn't move. Her legs felt like they were missing, like they simply weren't there to listen to the rest of her body. There was a tingling all over her, but even that was fading to a horrifyingly welcoming numbness.

"What… the hell, Tar… rant…" She could feel herself drooling as she tried to speak, slurring as the wave of exhaustion shut down her speech. She saw him through heavy eyes, standing over her, scolding her. His voice bubbled up through the fog, coming either before or after he disappeared from view.

"I don't have time for this shit, Cat! I gotta find it or… or I'm dead! Just be grateful you aren't..." He must have checked the box, found it empty. Went back inside. Leaving her here to… she couldn't think anymore. She could barely even see. The sky was above her, dark; the roof below her, hard; her tongue feeling thick and numb like a slug in her mouth. She could breathe, but she didn't really want to anymore. She didn't… really want to do anything. Just wanted to sleep… eyes closing… sky fading to black…

"Felicia… Felicia! Wake up!"

She felt a slap on her face. Not a hard one, but it was enough to make her seize the wrist assaulting her. She was still holding it when her vision cleared, and she saw the black covering the hand in her grip. Eddie didn't seem to mind how her clawed fingers dug into the symbiote skin. If anything, he just seemed relieved that she wasn't dead.

"...How long was I out for?" she groaned, still swimming in the mush of her own brain.

"Ten minutes," he answered. "We think." He helped her sit up, letting her still hold his hand as he supported her back. Symby seemed to grip her as much as he did, gluing itself to her glove. She breathed in deeply, trying to clear out the fog with a gust of cold wind. Her bones felt like they were filled with concrete.

"Where's…?"

"The guy dressed like discount Daredevil?" he finished for her. "Police caught him when he went back in the store and ran right into them."

Felicia sighed with a silent smile. At least one thing had gone right. She pushed herself off the ground, the throbbing of her ankle piercing through the swamp of her grogginess to give her a shot of awareness, though it also made her stumble with a hiss when she tried to put weight on it.

"Hey. Easy." Eddie caught her before she fell again. "What did he hit you with?"

"Some… kind of anaesthetic. It's a favorite of his." He coated his razors in it so anyone he managed to hit would be on the floor in seconds. Somehow she'd managed to forget about them, or maybe she just hadn't expected him to still be supplied with the stuff.

Eddie cocked an eyebrow skeptically, and seemed to hear something from the symbiote. "You sure it isn't poison?" he asked.

She shook her head; it only felt like poison afterwards. "I'm sure. He didn't use anything lethal in my gang, and I doubt Osborn would give him anything like that. I just… need to sleep it off." Once the pain in her foot faded, she let go of Eddie to stand by herself, still wobbling as she stamped her heel to drive some feeling back into her leg.

"Sorry for getting you not-poisoned, then," Eddie said. He seemed to be fighting the urge to keep holding her up, stanced so he could swoop in and catch her if she stumbled again. She hated how attentive he was. She was the one who slipped up and let herself get stabbed, so was paying the price for it. That was how it worked.

"It was worth it, at least," she said in return. "Tarantula came back because he dropped something, and I was lucky enough to pick it up before he showed."

Eddie's eyes widened, just as her own did when she realised what she had. "What was it?"

She pulled the folded paper out of her suit, both relieved it was still there and that Tarantula clearly hadn't chosen to search her while she was out. "Looks like a list. Can't tell if it's coded or if his handwriting is just really shitty. There's a date and address on the back too, probably another job he was slated to do."

Eddie squinted at the list, as mystified by it as she was. "Why'd you think the list was so important to him?"

"He said it was to remind him of important things. Whatever those things are, they must link him back to Osborn somehow, or at least other people working for him." Felicia shrugged as she tucked it away again. "I'll have a look at it when I get back home. See if I can get anything out of it."

"After you get a good night's sleep, that is," Eddie said, with a tone that both presented no argument and dared her to make one. Which is exactly what she did, even though her mouth felt filled with sawdust and her head felt like it had just been bounced around a mosh pit.

"I'm fine. Really. I just… just need to lie down for a few minutes." But all the talking she'd been doing robbed her of whatever energy she had left. When she sagged against him and the symbiote spread over her fingers to trap her there, she didn't even have motivation to try and struggle.

"You're going straight to bed, Felicia," Eddie told her. "Right now. Non-negotiable."

She could only mumble against him. "Usually men want to get me bed for everything _other_ than sleeping…" But she didn't argue further when Venom hauled her into his arms, holding her against his chest as he took her back to her apartment. The ache in her ankle faded to a dull throb by the time they reached the window, and other than having to fix the tear in her boot she knew it would heal fully by itself.

"If it makes you feel better," Eddie said when he helped her down off the windowsill, "when we saw you'd moved up to the roof we got some pretty nice pictures of the fight."

Felicia had been lulled by the feeling of wind blowing past her closed eyes and tense muscles holding her close, but now she snapped her eyes open as wide as she could manage. "I was getting my ass kicked while drugged up to my eyeballs and you stood by taking pictures of it?" It wasn't exactly what happened, but she was curious at just how much he'd seen of the fight.

"Hey, we didn't know you were drugged!" he swore. "Even then you were the one kicking _his _ass-!"

"I'm kidding, Eddie." Even in her hazy state, Felicia wondered if he'd always be this easy to rile up. "It's good that you didn't step in, anyway."

"Wanted to show off all by yourself?" he asked.

"Something like that. Now, I have a bed to sleep in and a list to try and decipher, and you have an article to go write. Promise you'll make me look good?"

"You've never needed much help with that. But some beauty sleep won't hurt." He pointed to her bed, and seemed adamant on staying hovering by until he saw her climb into it.

"Fine, fine," Felicia conceded, fighting back a yawn as she turned her back on him. "But unless you want to stay and watch me change-" She started pulling the zipper of her suit down, onto peeling her gloves when she saw his shadow still cast on the wall in front of her. She turned her head over her shoulder with a cocked eyebrow, seeing his head in a similar state.

"That wasn't an offer, Eddie."

He blinked, as if he'd just been broken out of his own kind of intoxicated trance. "We know. I-I know, I… was just… closing the window. Behind us. Good night." Just like that he was gone, fleeing from his own awkwardness. For a grown man who threatened to eat people, he was adorable sometimes.

Though Felicia supposed she was more to blame for it than he was. Like how she'd forgotten about Tarantula's true arsenal, sometimes she just forgot the effect she had on men. Even men like Eddie.

A man like Eddie Brock… seriously considering watching her undress.

Maybe it was the drug still floating in her bloodstream, but she was almost tempted to let him. Or maybe it was precisely because of the drug that she _didn't _let him.

It was only because of the drug. That's what she told herself even as she felt it ground out by her metabolism.


	12. Night 9

"It's been a few days." Eddie grunted as he slowly lowered the weight in his hand, relaxing his bicep in preparation for another rep. "Should we be worried?"

Symby stirred across his shoulders, careful not to slip into his muscles while he strengthened them. It knew Eddie didn't like cheating. "_**I don't think so. Felicia had warned it may be a while before she found anything. And her foot may still be healing."**_

"Still." Eddie exhaled, letting himself sweat for a second before continuing the exertion. "You'd think she'd at least have given us an update by now." Since he'd carried her back home they hadn't heard a word from her, and something stopped Eddie from going to her like he'd done for the last week… probably embarrassment, at her catching him ogling her like a teenager. Maybe she was biding her time to figure out how to best torment him over it. Even if he might have deserved it… he just wanted to know that they were onto something, that their efforts were getting them somewhere. Maybe he should have asked if she had a cellphone or something. He only used his for work, and even then only rarely. But then... she would have had a way to stoke his guilt 24/7.

Dammit, this was why he didn't work with other people.

"_**Patience, Eddie." **_The symbiote flicked at his ear, laughing in its own way as it tried to soothe his frustration.

"You know I've never had much of that to go around."

"_**Put some aside for her, then."**_

"...Alright. I guess she's earned it." Eddie released the weight at the end of the set, curling and uncurling his fingers to ease some of the ache in the hinges. Symby dribbled down his arm to meet his hand, circling his wrist as he twisted it.

"_**You've been thinking about her a lot,"**_ it said. It wasn't an accusation, or even asked out of curiosity. Symby just liked stating facts, sometimes to prove it was paying attention. Eddie didn't deny that it was true, and knew that he couldn't when Symby was often so deep inside his head. Even so, he felt a hot blush flare across his face. He _had_ been thinking about her... not just because of how he'd been frozen a few nights ago, at just the thought of her undressing in front of him. No, it wasn't the thought. It was hearing the zipper glide down. Seeing her glove peeled off her wrist, the fur around her chest plume over her shoulders as the front fell open...

Eddie grunted again, not from the throbbing of his muscles, and hoped Symby didn't notice it wasn't just the exercise making him flushed. If he was anyone else, anyone other than Venom, he might have given into it (what 'it' was, he didn't want to name). But Venom had to be more than just the man underneath. Venom didn't have the luxury of being human, and neither did he. He knew it in how little he ate, how little he tried to sleep. The symbiote did everything for him. Almost everything. So what was the point in trying to be normal when he didn't need to be?

That was the standard he held himself to, one that he at least tolerated… until the Cat came along and made normal, her kind of normal, seem so tempting. No grand purpose of trying to right a thousand wrongs in a single night. No desperate need to feel useful, to justify his place in New York or his own existence as who he was, _what _he was.

Just taking one evil down at a time, chipping away at the crumbling moral foundations of the city until the whole thing collapsed to be rebuilt anew one day, one day soon enough, but not by them. By people better than they were.

It was so… small. So ineffective. So demanding of patience that he didn't have to give. And yet Eddie had felt better, cleaner (not just from showering) in the last week than he ever had after one night of taking down ten, twenty, even fifty evil souls. He felt lighter, as if this whole time all his strength had been used to carry a weight that had now simply dissolved, leaving him with no idea of what else to do with his muscles.

Other than make them bigger. He hadn't even realised he'd transferred the dumbbell to his other hand until he felt the burn in his forearm, and his fingers were locked too tightly around the handle for him to drop it in defiance. He'd been so sunk into his mind that he'd went on autopilot. It didn't happen so often nowadays with Symby there to guide his mind back to his body, but it still threw him off when he realised he even had a body to return to.

The symbiote itself didn't seem to notice how he'd been jolted, or if it did it wasn't concerned by it. It was still waiting for him to speak, in his own time. Though it could read them well enough, Symby preferred that he spoke his thoughts. It didn't like having to dig to understand him- and Eddie didn't want to give it reason to have to. He wondered how it could be so patient while bonded to someone like him, but then he remembered it was hundreds of years older than him. Then again, if he had all that time to live he knew he'd never learn how to get that kind of endurance.

"I'm still not sure what I should be thinking, really," he admitted, mechanically lifting the weight as he tried to shield exactly what had been going through his head. The symbiote gurgled, suspicious.

"_**About what?" **_It probed his brain without actually probing it.

"About… her. About whatever it is she's really wanting from us."

Because that had to be part of it. There must have been something she wanted from them that she couldn't get from anyone or anywhere else. Usually where Eddie was concerned people only wanted his symbiote, or him dead. Or both. Both was the most common since they were so tied into each other. And Felicia's favourite hobby was stealing… but after being under Maniac's control, he doubted she wanted anything to do with symbiotes for a long long time. Was there something she wanted to steal from Osborn, which was why she was so focused on figuring him out? No, they hadn't even known Osborn was involved when she asked for his help.

The only other answer was that, like him, she just wanted to take bad people off the streets. It would have been the ideal answer for him, which was precisely why he didn't buy it. Things never fit that well together for him, or if they did it was because it was convenient for someone else that he thought everything was okay.

Even so...

Eddie remembered when she first showed up, another thing he'd been thinking about as he tried to decipher her just as she deciphered her list. He remembered how everyone clambered to get pictures of her and then of her and the spider, because at one point you could rarely find one without the other. He remembered everyone at the Globe thinking they were a cute couple. He'd even bought into it, only slightly. Other than that, no one had really known what to make of the Black Cat, not even back then, and certainly not him. Headlines would brand her a criminal when just one page over there'd be a photo of her kissing the city's hero. Eddie hadn't written anything about her back then simply because he knew he'd have to change the narrative every other week if he did. He'd read a lot, though. Reading was enough, at least back then. Now that he'd seen her for himself, he knew just how little the pages really said about her. And when he did finally write about her a few days ago, making up as much as he had to about her confrontation with Tarantula, he found it was impossible to be unbiased. He couldn't step back and see her as a criminal, as another menace to the city.

After the third torn-up draft, he caved in and did as he'd promised. He made her look good, and his boss loved it. Which meant that most of it must have been true, cause she had an acute bullshit radar that told her what was just believable enough to get away with publishing, what was too stupid and fantastical _not_ to publish for the paper equivalent of clickbait, and which always went off when he tried to give Venom the same treatment.

So it must have been true… to him, at least. Otherwise he wouldn't have been able to write it without grinding his teeth. There were some things that he simply had to admit to. Like that she was… attractive. Very attractive. And the term 'fiercely intelligent' fit her as well as her suit did.

But she was also flippant. Willing to give up the empire she'd spent years building, even if it was a lost cause, just because he happened to suggest something better. Not to mention the very definition of conniving, almost as bad as him when it came to holding grudges, impulsive, selfish… though she only took from those what they could afford to lose. She took regardless of who they were, of what she thought of them. Where Eddie had made the world his enemy, she had made it her target. The Earth was nothing more to her than a big blue jewel to keep in her safe. Not to hold it for ransom or hold control over it. Just because she thought it looked pretty, and she wanted it. Compared to the typical kind of megalomaniac that New York seemed to breed, Felicia was practically a breath of fresh air.

And Eddie had done worse than she ever would. Much worse. Which made him all the more suspicious of why she'd come to him. She didn't want his symbiote, but he had nothing else to give. There had to be a price for her help, for trusting her. It hadn't come when they took down Maniac together, but that only told him that it was now overdue to be paid. Maybe he'd already paid it, and he just didn't know it. And if he hadn't the question was, what would she end up taking from him? And could he really afford to lose it? After all, the bad luck had to hit him at some point.

"_**May I offer my own thoughts?"**_ Symby asked, its head hovering over his shoulder.

Eddie blinked. How long had he been out of it again? From the ache in his arm, it must have only been a few seconds. "Of course, love." He'd never silence his other, as long as it wasn't craving anything unsavory.

"_**I think she's as good as we could hope for."**_

He raised an eyebrow. "In what way?"

"_**She's a remarkable woman**_**,"** it explained. "_**An excellent teammate. We should be grateful to work with her."**_

Symby really must have been cured, from how it completely forgiven her for her deception before. He was glad about that, but this glowing endorsement of her was making him cautious. He trusted the symbiote to be his second sense, his intuition. It so rarely gave anyone praise that he couldn't help but be suspicious when it did.

"You're not just saying that cause you were bonded to two of her exes?" he asked.

Symby pulled back from his shoulder and into his skin, making its irritation known by causing a cramp. "_**I am more than my previous hosts' opinions, Eddie. You should know that."**_

Eddie winced, rolling his shoulder to ease the symbiote spasm. "Sorry. I didn't mean it like that, I just…" He trailed off as Symby relented, spreading across the affected muscle to bring it back under control.

"_**I know. But I'm sure of what I say."**_

Eddie reconsidered its words, the way it said she was the best they could _both _hope for. Whether or not Symby still shared his doubts about her or had different ones altogether, it was able to put them aside. Once again proving itself as a better person who wasn't even a person, and forcing Eddie to accept that he may have been wrong about her, as he usually was about everything.

Maybe the lightness he felt, the satisfaction and contentment so foreign to him that it took him this long to even label it, maybe it wasn't because of _what_ they'd been doing. The body count was irrelevant.

Maybe it was just because of her.

"Well, I can't argue with you," he conceded, letting himself smile as he restarted his weight set. He'd been so distracted that he lost count of his reps.

"_**Her apartment is lovely, too,"**_ Symby mentioned.

"Sure is a lot better than ours."

"_**Why don't we get a better one?"**_

"Because we can't afford a better one. Because Felicia steals, and we don't."

"_**Stealing isn't so bad. We don't have to kill thieves."**_

"Maybe not, but we're not doing it." Eddie had made that a second rule on top of no more uncontrolled killing. Anything a criminal had that was worth stealing was likely taken from someone else who needed it more than they did. "And anyway, this place isn't so bad. Neighbours are quiet, it's close enough to the stores,-"

"Nice view, too."

At the sound of a second voice that wasn't inside his head, Eddie almost dropped the weight right on top of his foot as he jumped. "Fuck me!"

Perched in his window, her suit looking out of place in the lingering evening daylight, Felicia was a picture of amusement. How long had she been there for?!

"You'll have to buy me dinner again," she told him.

Eddie tried not to look like he'd almost had a cardiac arrest, exhaling heavily to mask his heart rate. He saw Symby holding his dropped weight in a tendril, saving it from crashing into the floor. "You-You startled us. Don't do that."

She shrugged. "Sorry. I just didn't want to interrupt. You working off all the chocolate?" She pulled two bars out from an inside pocket and threw them in his direction.

"Something like that," he said as he grabbed them out of the air. One for the other night, one for this one. He put them down for later- now that Symby didn't need them to stay sane, he tried not to let it indulge too much.

"Mind if I come in?" she asked. "Unless you usually have women in your window, people on the street might start staring."

He shook his head, wiping at his forehead with black claws while she pushed off the window sill with her own. "You manage to find something?"

Felicia nodded, doing her usual refusal to sit normally as she perched again on the chair across from the window. "Turns out most of the code really was just shitty handwriting. The rest of it was vague abbreviations, but they were easy enough to crack. From what I could gather, it's all details of other distraction hits. Some of them have already happened, but the next earliest date on it happens to be tonight."

Eddie listened as he grabbed some water from the fridge. "Any address?"

"Pet store. The big one in Queens."

Eddie knew of it. It was the reason he stayed out of Queens for a while, in case the temptation of so much food in one place became too much for Symby. But now that they were cured, it wouldn't be an issue any more. He gulped down half the bottle in his hand as he plotted out how they'd get there with someone else in tow.

"Venom can get across the bridge," he said, "but there's a gap between where it ends and where there's buildings tall enough to swing from. We could try and use one of the towers as a vantage point to-"

He broke off when he noticed Felicia wasn't really paying attention to him. Well, she was, but it wasn't to what he was saying. Her hooded eyes went much lower than his face, and he suddenly felt very self conscious about insisting on working out shirtless.

"Felicia. Focus." He snapped his fingers until her eyes snapped back up to his face.

"Hm? I'm listening," she lied, completely guiltless and somehow making _him_ feel embarrassed for noticing.

"No you're not, you're staring at my chest." How did she deny it so easily yet when _he _got caught wanting to look where he maybe shouldn't have been looking he spent days afterwards blushing about it? Unlike him, maybe she was just used to getting away with it. Must have been why she shot him with a deadly raised eyebrow.

"Oh, so when someone stare at mine's it's okay, but if _I _do it to a guy-"

"That's not what I meant and you know it." She did know it, and she suddenly smirked over it, all irritation suddenly swept away. God, she was exhausting sometimes.

"Well, I can stare _and _listen," she told him, as if that excused her eyeing him so openly. Though, it kinda did since he'd only been annoyed cause she wasn't listening. He thought he heard Symby laughing as he shook his head.

"What I was saying was, we'll be better off jumping from one of the high points if we don't want to be seen. How's your ankle?"

"My boot was more damaged than the skin was." She swung her leg up from her perch, showing off both her flexibility and mending skills. The boot didn't even look like it had a scratch on it. And if she was feeling well enough to run all the way over here, she wasn't lying just to get going somewhere.

"Good. Cause we're gonna be doing a lot of uphill running."

"I know." She pulled her leg back down and used it to propel herself in a cartwheel back over to the window. "The Queens Bridge is where I first practiced disappointing my mother by going out at night with strange men in spandex."

"How does she feel about strange men in symbiotes?" Eddie found himself asking, as the black bubbled over his skin. Unlike Felicia's apartment, his window was at least big enough for both of him. She looked down at him as she stood in the tall portal, and shrugged.

"She'd probably say I could do worse." A backflip onto the lower roof carried her out into the young night, unable to resist showing off again, and Venom had the feeling she was only just getting started.


	13. Night 9 Part 2

For once, Felicia didn't hitch a ride on Venom's back. Either to show off that her ankle wasn't an issue or just to show off in general, she easily kept pace with him as he flung himself over the cityscape towards Queensboro. Sometimes she'd drop down to the lower roofs just so she could flip her way back up to his level, making it all look so effortless even though they were both left panting by the time they reached the bridge.

Venom perched on the nearest roof, the symbiote rippling around him as it tried to regulate his breathing. The gap to the bridge was wide, meaning he'd need to swing over it, but Felicia was eyeing it in a different way. Measuring the distance roughly with her hands, she seemed convinced she could clear it by herself. Venom huffed skeptically; she was good, but maybe not _that _good.

"**Ladies first,"** he said, sitting back hunched on his clawed toes as he watched her. She frowned, dug one of her heels into the gravel of the roof, then ran forwards and launched herself off. She twirled in the air, briefly backlit by the lights from the road below, before she was yanked clean across it by the grappling hook on her wrist. She was a blur of white for some dizzying seconds and when her fur lay flat again, she was standing atop the bridge's first pillar and looking down at him impatiently.

"What's the hold up?" she called down, hands on her hips as if he was supposed to have followed her. Venom couldn't help a slick smirk from emerging as he took his own shortcut off the roof, daring to fall a little further than she did before snapping out a webline to carry him onto the bridge itself. He landed on the side of the supports, digging his claws in and crawling up to meet Felicia. He'd made it halfway by the time she got bored waiting, and they were both leaping down to the crisscross of steel beams that made up the length of the bridge. From there, it was a race to see who could get to the other end first.

Felicia's balance was unmatched as she ran along the supports, not even stumbling even with a hard road on one side of her and a hungry river on the other. With her white hair and furs flying behind her she was almost like a ghost, practically floating over the bridge as the leather of her suit caught the last rays of the sun straight ahead of them. When the beams rose up just a little too steeply for her to climb she let her hook carry her the rest of the way, backflipping over the main support to its other side and easily sliding down the wooden slope waiting there.

Venom was a lot less graceful as he tried to keep up on the opposite side; he threw himself into the air as he bounded across the bridge, snapping the wood and severely denting the steel beneath him from the grip of his claws. He was surprised that it could even take his weight, but the tremors and shower of splinters left in his wake only gave him more motivation to get across it as quickly as possible. The wind was cold on his tongue as it streamed behind him like a red banner, and the symbiote rippled against the pull of air. Not uncomfortably, though. It was more ticklish than anything.

"You're pretty good at this, Eddie!" Felicia called out over the hum of traffic below. She'd paused at the top of the bridge's middle support, watching him crawl like a certain spider up the length of the tower before he cleared the rest of the distance to the top in a single leap. Of course he was good at it; he'd crossed into Queens often enough when the spider lived there, had swung so many times between the low buildings just on the chance that he would see Venom's shadow. Back when all Eddie and Symby cared about was suffocating him in that shadow. But Eddie didn't want to think about spiders. Didn't want to ruin the rush of adrenaline that the symbiote happily gorged on, or uncoil the pleasant tension wreathed throughout his muscles as they rested just for a few seconds.

"**Had a lot of practice in San Francisco," **he called back to Felicia, reeling his tongue back behind his fangs to wet it. The Golden Gate Bridge had been his very first port of call when he returned home, all those years ago, and had been where most people in the city got their first look at their new lethal protector. The symbiote liked the challenge of seeing how far it could swing between the steel bars. Eddie liked the view, and feeling useful. He suspected they'd saved more lives just from catching jumpers before they hit the water than they ever had from stopping criminals. Always catching them, just in time, always watching them to see if they'd really go through with it. Eddie hadn't trusted himself to be able to talk them out of it. After all, he'd been just like them, more times than he cared to remember. He knew how hard it was to believe anything he or anyone else might have said to them.

"Still got another half to cross," Felicia said, jolting him free from the thorns of the memories. "Try and keep up a little more."

In the time it took Venom to blink, she was already running. He vaulted after her, leaving most of his regrets behind along with the saliva caught in the wind. As he kept pace with her, locking his gaze on her to make sure she wasn't getting ahead of him, he had to marvel at her stamina. The bridge was almost 4000 feet long, yet she'd crossed over half of it and barely needed to catch her breath. It was as if she was able to ignore the ache of her legs, the stinging build-up of lactic acid corroding her muscles as she gulped down the air that rushed past her. Just as Eddie had learned to do, had forced himself to do. When the pain came, it would be later. Maybe a few minutes later, maybe hours. It would come, but it would come only when it was convenient. Not when he had shit to get done.

Or maybe she had superpowers. Either one would have still left him impressed, just as impressed as she was when they finally reached the very last support before the bridge lead into Queens.

"Wow." She whispered it as she cleared her hair from her eyes, as they looked out across the borough. Venom turned his head to follow her gaze, having to squint against the setting sun. But the glare cleared as the last of it finally disappeared below the horizon, and the night was free to spread out and stake its own claim over the sky. The stars in Felicia's eyes reflected those starting to bloom out from black that was reaching out like ink over the sunset, like a symbiote bonding with the entire planet. If Venom needed to breathe, it would have been impossible to even try.

What was it that he felt… homesickness? Longing? Which of those stars was Klyntar? Did Symby even want to go back, or was it just aching for the cold embrace of outer space? All that it had done with better hosts than him, all that it kept hidden from him… was Eddie being cruel, keeping it here with him when it belonged out there?

"_**No, love," **_it said, insisted, clutching him tighter as if to protest him even thinking it. Even so, the sight gave him sadness.__They'd spent so long looking in the gutters, in the sewers and basements and broken foundations for anyone trying to hide there. How long had it been since Venom, since Eddie had simply looked up to find something better? Not since he'd first lost Symby. Not since he'd lost everything he loved. Since before Symby...

But he still remembered those better times. Those times when he tried to show it that Earth had something for them. Those times when, after a long night in San Francisco, the sunrise would make the sky a mottled sheet of dark red, to compliment the blood he'd left on the city's streets. Other times the rain would leave it heavy with grey, its weight pressing down on their shoulders everywhere they went but also reminding them to stay strong, to push back against it and ignore the hail.

Not all happy times. But important to him, important to remember. Even so, they didn't compare to what Felicia had brought him to.

"_**Look again, Eddie." **_Symby was pulling on his neck, but not craning it upwards. He was being pulled to the left, away from the sky. Away from the approaching night, from the long-gone what-could've-beens, towards the new what-ifs beside him. Towards Felicia. If the sky covered her, she could have been nothing more than a few streaks of white on its pitch canvas. She could have blended effortlessly into the Milky Way, the tight negative space of her curves fitting like a hand-crafted puzzle piece into the swirls. How did they know that? Because Symby had seen the galaxy, so much of it, that it could see such a picture as if it was really there before them. And it was sharing that vision with Eddie, letting him see what it saw. Letting him see Felicia as he'd been too scared to see her before.

They were in perfect symbiosis, and from that symbiosis Eddie realised that Symby hadn't been longing for the stars. It hadn't been admiring the universe from Earth, didn't draw its wonder from the sky. True, it was lovely, awe-inspiring, a tapestry of its true home, of everything that it had inherited and everything it deserved to have, everything that Eddie hoped to be deserving of, and yet…

Right now, they both only wanted to look at her.

"It's kinda beautiful, isn't it?" Felicia asked softly, still looking where their eyes weren't any longer.

'_Yes_,' Eddie thought. '_Yes, you are_.'

Rather than saying that, though, he followed his instincts and did what most men always did when it came to choking up their hearts. He ran away. Well, he jumped down first and then caught his webline on a building sitting on the bank of the river, only running up the side of it. Felicia followed him with her grapple, apparently not offended at thinking she was being ignored.

If she only knew how impossible she was to ignore.

"**Who're we up against tonight?"** Venom asked, once they were out of sight on the roof. It only occurred to him then that he probably should have asked before they left, so he at least had some idea of what he was getting into.

"From the initials on the list and the kind of job this is," Felicia said, "I'd guess it's White Rabbit."

It was a name that took Venom a second to recognise, but it was a second of blissful ignorance that didn't last nearly long enough. If it was the same one White Rabbit he was thinking of, he knew her as Lorina was what she signed every letter with, the name that Cletus taunted him with when they had to share that tiny cell.

Not her. Please, God, not her...

Felicia cocked her head, almost making Venom forget his panic as her hair spilled like starlight over her shoulder. "What's wrong?"

Venom clenched his fangs, grinding them together. He really had to learn to hide his emotions more. God only knew what else Felicia might end up seeing if she could really read him so easily.

"**We… I mean…" **He shook his head, dislodging some symbiote as it peeled back from Eddie."I'm, uh… familiar with her," he admitted, cutting into his palms with his own claws.

"Oh?" This cat didn't shy away from curiosity; she fixed him with a glittering stare that demanded more from him. Eddie sighed, scratching at the back of his neck now to spare his hands the anxious gouging.

"She… wrote to me in prison," he groaned. "A lot."

"Like a… penpal?"

"She wanted to be a _lot _more than just pals, believe me." Just remembering the letters made him shudder… and not in the way Lorina had been hoping he would. Between her weird-ass self-insert Wonderland fanfiction and Cletus re-enacting his favourite kills over the tinny blare of heavy metal, if Symby hadn't gotten him out of prison-

"Who'd've known Venom was such a ladies man?" Felicia's grin stopped that train of thought before it could crash and cause a massacre. "Well, your romantic date is waiting for you." She gestured over the flat streets below them towards the one building that stood above them all in the neighbourhood; the pet store that more like a warehouse, really. Even from so far away they could hear the animals inside, most of them asleep, but this time at least Symby wasn't drooling over them. But maybe that was only because they were far away.

"If you make us go over there," Eddie said, "it will be a horror show." He wasn't just thinking of Symby getting distracted by all the easy prey. If Lorina really was over there...

"I'm sure it will be," Felicia said back. She was still smiling, either because she didn't believe him or because she _did_.

"We're serious. You will _die_ from secondhand embarrassment."

She shrugged, and the fur around her chest framed her face like a halo in the moonlight. "I've survived worse."

Eddie sighed. It wasn't the first time a beautiful woman had talked him into a bad decision- and at this rate it wouldn't be the last.

"Fine. We'll do it." He held out a hand, and Symby deposited something in it from a tendril (Cat wasn't the only one with secret pockets). "If you get us some good pictures of us kicking the ass of a young lady who's clearly mentally ill." He'd had the idea ever since Symby mentioned the spider using his then-girlfriend as his personal photojournalist. As he expected, Felicia played dumb when he held out the camera to her.

"What makes you think I know anything about taking pictures?"

"Symby told me you did it for Spider-Man when he wore it."

Her defeated scowl suited her much better than the dumb act. She snatched the camera with an exaggerated pout. "Your suit's a little snitch."

"Yeah, but it's _my_ little snitch."

"Just get you and your snitch down there. Try and break something while you're both at it."

"Any preference as to what?"

She shrugged as she squinted down the camera's viewfinder. "Not really. You'll be breaking her heart anyway."

Eddie's smirk was multiplied tenfold by Venom's mask creeping over it. **"Heart. Nose. Same thing, really."** He left her to puzzle out the camera as he bounded across the low buildings towards the store. As he neared it, Symby caught another sound over the increasing, gentle thud of pulses and shuffling furry bodies beyond the walls. The tick of a stopwatch.

Yep, it was definitely her. She stood at the back of the store, somehow thinking she was being sneaky in white bunny ears as she impatiently twirled the heavy watch on its chain and thumped her feet, not unlike an actual rabbit.

"Come on, come on, I got a tea party to get to," she muttered. "By tea, I mean wine, and by party, I mean-"

"**Lorina, what are you doing?"**

Venom dropped down behind her, and she whirled around before he even hit the ground, almost literally clocking herself in the face with her watch.

"V...V-Venom?!" She was like a, well, rabbit in the headlights, wide-eyed and heart thudding like a jackhammer. He swore that her nose was even twitching. It might have been cute, if he didn't know how insane she really was.

"What- I… I wasn't expecting you!" She let out a nervous laugh, though she seemed to convince herself that she was safe. "N-Not that I'm not happy to see you, of course. Did you get my letters? Well, duh, you must have, why else would you be here? I was so worried they wouldn't give you them, Eddie Bear... after they moved you to maximum security, I mean."

She actually looked happy to see him. Venom was so caught off-guard that he completely forgot he was supposed to be threatening her. Not to mention the effect of hearing her say that embarrassing nickname she'd come up with out loud...

"**Lori, we need to-"**

Whatever warning he was about to give her dried up on his tongue as she lunged forward, grabbing his face while heedless of the symbiote sticking to her gloves. "It _is _my Eddie Bear under there, right?" she asked, smooshing his face as if it was a rubber mask. "Last time I met a Venom he was some wimp dressed like a late 90s GI Joe toy."

"_**Don't like her touching us, Eddie!" **_Symby grabbed her wrists with two agitated tendrils, and Venom pulled her hands away with his own, trying to work up more saliva so his snarl would be convincing. **"Eddie is here, Lorina, but you need to listen to-"**

Again his threat was ruined, but this time it was because he spotted the back door opening behind Lorina. He looked past her, to the small creatures flooding out of the crack they'd somehow nudged open.

"**...Are those rabbits?" **Even as he asked it, he had to wonder why on Earth he was surprised.

"Yep!" Lorina grinned and nodded proudly.

"**As in… normal pet rabbits?"**

"Not exactly. They've been genetically altered, but not really that much. It's as if these guys _wanted_ them to escape. Didn't even put a lock on their cages!"

Venom shook himself. He felt like he was getting too old for this. **"And you're using them… for what?"**

Lorina clapped her hands together, still grinning as her ears shook. "For the best mass robbery ever! Oh, you'd be so proud of me; okay, so, the rabbits sneak into a store, pick up whatever they can, sneak back out- police are usually on their way by then but that doesn't matter, the bunnies can get away- and THEN the _real _heist kicks in. They spread themselves all over the city, and make people chase after them. Cause, y'know, you see a rabbit carrying a Rolex in its teeth, you're gonna wanna go after it. They lure them off somewhere secluded, where no one else is around, and WACK!" She whipped out her stopwatch like a mace, snapping the heavy gold timepiece in the air before it fell back down on its chain. "I knock 'em out and take whatever I want off of them. Ain't it genius? I might change my name to the Red Queen once I own the streets!"

Venom only half listened to her spiel. He was still looking at the rabbits stumbling over each other in a furry landslide through the door, wondering if Felicia was double over somewhere above him in laughter. **"And... just how are you able to pull all that off?"**

"That's the best part! I got this thing to tell them what to do." Lorina thrust out something from her coat pocket, something too complex for Venom to call anything other than 'a weird device'. Whatever it was, it looked like it came from Osborn.

"It activates the genes in them that tell them where to go," Lorina went on, oblivious to what Venom was trying to piece together. "Technically it can work on any animal, but rabbits are easiest. Apparently. I dunno how it works exactly."

"**Where'd you get it from?" **Venom asked, on the off-chance that she'd be so caught up in her pitch that she'd let the name slip.

"Oh, doesn't matter. He just gave me the blueprints, _I_ built it all. I did _try_ to make something like it once myself, but it only worked on ants. So it was pretty useless."

Venom nodded along, with another gambit in his mind. **"Well, it all sounds very impressive. May we see it?"**

She nodded again, her grin making her dimples look even more like a rabbit. As soon as she handed the device over, he crushed in his palm with a flick of his claws that left her eyes twitching more than her nose.

"What the hell, Eddie?! Do you know how much that thing cost?!"

"**Do **_**you**_** know?"** he countered, shaking off the shards of plastic and circuitry left on his hand.

"...Well, it _looked_ expensive!" she yelled, stomping her feet in utter disregard of trying to not draw even more attention to herself. "And now look what you've done, they have no idea what to do now!" She swept her arm out towards the hoard of rabbits who now stopped in their tracks, blinking mutely and standing up on hind legs to see where they'd ended up. Some of them looked at Lorina, as if noting how she tried to fit in with them. But most of them looked at Venom. And most of them ran towards him.

"**Hey! Get off us! We'll gut you-!" **His snarling threats were literally buried under a mountain of fur and whiskers as the rabbits swarmed over him, sticking to the symbiote and building up into a moving carpet of fluff and ears. Symby didn't even sense them as threats, not even when they pulled its host to the ground.

"_**They… they tickle me, Eddie. Is this good?"**_

'_No it is not! Get them off!" _The more Venom thrashed to try and dislodge them, the deeper they stuck into the symbiote. He could feel them nibbling at the ooze, their claws poking into the skin underneath.

Somewhere above him, beyond the Death By Fluffocation he was enduring, Lorina sounded disappointed.

"I guess this is why they say never to meet your heroes… give me a call when you man up a little, Eddie."

He couldn't even tell when she'd left, since his vision was nothing more than different soft shades of brown and grey. Not even Symby knew how to fight against the flood, since any move it made only had it drawing more bunnies in like magnets. As he lay there silently screaming and squirming, it took Eddie a lot longer than he would've liked to admit to figure out that he could dislodge them by just pulling Symby back into his body. Christ, Felicia was never going to let him hear the end of this-

"The mighty Venom, defeated by bunnies. Seriously?"

Speak of the devil. She was looking down at him, her feet on either side of his head as the symbiote and bunnies slid off of him and cleared his vision.

"We never claimed to be mighty," he groaned, feeling like a torn pincushion from all the rabbit claws digging into him. He was too tired to even swat away the few that lingered to nibble on his fingers. "Please tell me you didn't get any pictures of that…"

Felicia sighed. "You're a complete disaster, Eddie. No wonder she was into you. Get up." She at least leaned down to help, hauling him up by his shoulders as if he weighed no more than one of the rabbits hopping around them both. Eddie started to dust himself down once he was on his feet, only to find that the amount of fur plastered on him would take an industrial vacuum to clear. He was not looking forward to laundry day.

"I think we handled it pretty well," he said, at least trying to shake the worst of the fluff free. "A few weeks ago, we might have just eaten them."

"Don't say that!" Felicia smacked him across a bicep. "You eat _anything_ cute and fluffy, and this partnership is over." Her scowl, the second one of the night, was a lot more cute than threatening. Even so, Eddie knew better than to tease her further. Even Symby gave him a sharp sting on his neck for making the suggestion. So, with both ladies in his life scolding him, he tried to make himself useful. He looked around the lupine carpet covering the small parking lot, to find where Lorina likely made her escape from.

"Shouldn't we chase after her?" he asked, gesturing towards the most obvious route- right onto the street in front of the store.

"Bad things usually happen to people who chase after white rabbits," Felicia said, kneeling down to take a giant grey one into her arms as it pawed at her legs.

Eddie groaned. "Please. I can't take anymore literary references tonight." From how his head swam he felt like he was back in college, during the dissertation-or-die senior year. By contrast, she looked like she was having the time of her life. The bunny in her arms was likely the only thing softer than the fur on her suit, and she happily nuzzled into it as if they weren't currently standing in a crime scene.

"You know we need to put them back," he told her.

"But do we _really_ have to?"

"Just how old are you, Felicia?"

"However old I am doesn't make bunnies any less adorable." She shifted the huge one flopped over in her arms, and it yawned while still twitching its nose.

"...Yeah, okay, they are cute," Eddie admitted. "Still need to put them back, though."

Felicia pouted, another second occurence for the night, this one even cuter than anything else he'd seen. Including the bunnies. "Fine. But when this is all over I'm coming right back here and I'm getting this one. I'll name him Charlie." She gave the rabbit a kiss between its ears before finally letting it back down on the ground.

"Well, fluffy things do suit you." A lot of things suited her. It was like she could slip into anything- any suit, any persona, any situation, and it would fit her like a glove. Maybe Symby was onto something about her curves… he couldn't stop looking at them as they tried to herd the rabbits back inside for a poor employee on the morning shift to sort out.

"I almost called myself Black Rabbit, y'know. Then I realised no-one was ever gonna be intimidated by someone called that." She whirled around on him, as if she could sense his eyes on her rear. Symby almost covered them in white, as if by reflex, but he managed to drag them back up just in time.

"Cause cats are so much scarier?" he asked while trying to wrestle a bunny into his arms without hurting it.

"Hell yes, they are," she told him, effortlessly herding the hoards of fluff. "Lions, jaguars, _panthers_. If a cat name is good enough for the King of Wakanda, then it's good enough for me."

"Can't argue with that, so I won't." Eddie much preferred Felicia's company to any kind of superpowered royalty anyway.

"Smart boy." Felicia flashed short fangs in a grin, proving how well 'Cat' really fit her. "Oh, and I read that article you wrote about me."

"What did you think?" he asked, nervously now that he knew he hadn't been lying at all about everything he put in it.

"I liked it. Especially the part where you didn't say I ended up passed out."

Eddie's blush was thankfully sabotaged by the rabbit in his arms kicking into his chest, forcing him to let it go as it bolted back through the open door.

"You could return the favour by not telling anyone I got outnumbered by bunnies," he offered.

'_And by not pointing out how I can't stop staring at you.'_

Whether or not Felicia could see that thought on his face, Eddie couldn't yet tell, and he wasn't sure if her answer would have changed if she could.

"Don't worry. I won't tell anyone… _Eddie Bear._" She laughed through her smile, and the red curve of her lips sealed his fate. It didn't even matter that she was making fun of him.

He was going to fall for this woman. And, as he always did, he'd find a way to fuck it up.


	14. Night 10

While her coffee cooled in her hand, Felicia watched Eddie gulp down the last of the chocolate clutched in his, fangs flashing in the flickering neon glow of the sign they both crouched behind. The burning pink made the black over his skin look radioactive, and made what the light didn't fall on look even darker than usual. It was like staring at a living black hole that was itself gulping down and tearing apart the newborn light of a nebula as it stretched across the pitch-black, not knowing how easily it would be consumed for straying so close.

Or, considering it was Eddie she was looking at, like watching a man severely regret letting his symbiote eat so fast as he tried to pick pieces of plastic wrapper out from between both its and his own teeth.

"So Osborn never bailed out Tarantula?" he asked, rubbing his tongue across his teeth. Even when the symbiote didn't cover them, his canines managed to still look wickedly sharp. Felicia was half expecting to see blood welling up from his mouth.

"Nope," she answered, daring a sip from her cup. "I guess cause he's done all his share of the work. Hopefully that means Osborn doesn't know that info about his people has gotten out." She used her usual sources to find out that White Rabbit was still loose and Tarantula was still locked up, and though they were both dead ends for now she'd found an even better lead instead.

Her old lieutenant Killer Shrike _did_ get bailed, that very night, from the same benefactor who so generously released the Ringer- even if it was just to try and have him killed. And, just like with Ringer, that meant only one of two things. Either Shrike was needed for a distraction, or he was being offered up as bait to get someone else in with The Hood.

Whichever one it was, Felicia luckily remembered something very vital to tracking Shrike down. Whenever he had something big to deal with, he always went drinking the night before. And one bar in particular was his favourite, the one in the alley she and Eddie were looking down on. It was one of those in the city that had no official name, no sign outside or even windows to show if any lights were on inside. She'd staked it out a few times before when she first went looking for Shrike, but he'd never showed up. She was confident this night, though. If he was going to The Hood, he'd be in there for a while. And Venom would be waiting for him when he came out.

"I looked up this guy earlier today," Eddie said. "Is he in some kinda Captain America situation where he came here from the past or does he just seriously think a ponytail is a good look?"

Felicia knew firsthand just how ridiculous Shrike looked to anyone who didn't know what he was capable. But even as she smirked, she thought it was rich for Eddie of all people to critique hairstyles.

"Didn't you have a mullet in the nineties?" she asked.

He went quiet, though his other seemed to be snickering.

"...We don't talk about that," he mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck as if worried his hair would suddenly grow and spill over it. She almost spat some of her coffee out as she snorted. Though she didn't blame him for being defensive; to everyone involved in it, the nineties was like a long never-ending fever dream.

"Don't feel bad," she said. "Lots of weird shit happened back then. I thought full-length cleavage was a good idea, people still thought you were just Spider-Man in black…" She trailed off with another sip of coffee while Eddie scoffed.

"The world doesn't need another spider. Not this one, at least." Of course that hadn't stopped a whole lot of Spider-Women cropping up, but Eddie didn't seem to mind any of them nearly as much as he did the original. All Felicia knew was that the original had only turned out to be a lot more trouble than he was worth. For so long she'd thought that had been what attracted her to him all along, but now… well, now she hoped she was a little smarter than that.

"I have to agree," she said to Eddie. "Though I think one Venom is enough, too."

"That's two things we agree on, then. So long as _I'm_ the only one." He frowned to himself, and Felicia realised just how sore he was over being replaced as the city's resident alien monster. Even now that he was Venom again, almost no-one knew the man underneath the alien. Only those who were likely to be hunted by him knew who to suspect, knew to fear that it was Eddie Brock back from the dead to drag them down to hell in his place, but to everyone else who didn't lurk in the underground he was just 'the monster'. The boogeyman. The reason that most neighbourhoods had curfews even if their crime rates were in the negatives- also because of him. Some thought he was a hoax. Some thought it was another case of someone stealing a costume and name for themselves, not knowing that the costume and name was a being onto itself. Felicia had seen it for herself; dumbass kids thinking they could cash in on Venom's resurrection by pulling on something black and white and letting it speak for them without giving it a voice. Dumbass kids who got themselves killed.

Eddie wouldn't have known about them, though. If he did, there wouldn't have been any of the fakes left to make him look bad- well, worse than he usually was. Felicia took a deep sip just as her coffee was starting to get cold.

"From what I've seen," she said, "you've got some competition there."

His eyebrows jerked up. "Like who? And don't say Flash, cause that symbiote-stealing asshole didn't even call himself Venom."

She rolled her eyes. Flash just couldn't stop making enemies by being better than everyone else around him. "I just mean that black is a pretty popular colour among the morally challenged. But I wore it way before you did."

Eddie frowned again, but as he looked away he seemed to come to some kind of compromise in his head. "It _does_ go with everything…" he conceded. "Better than purple, at least. And if I had to choose, I'd rather have a spider on my chest than a bird."

Felicia smiled. He really had done his research on Killer Shrike. With his habit of hunting down villains she suspected he knew more about some of them than she did, but it was nice to hear he knew how to fill in the gaps.

"What d'you think causes it, Eddie?"

"What d'you mean?"

"This city is just about the only one on the planet that has a costumed villain epidemic. What is it about New York specifically that makes someone decide one day to dress up in a leotard and get their ass kicked every night by a guy who can stick to walls?"

Eddie looked away for a moment. "What made _you_ do it?" he asked back.

If it was anyone else, she might have hit him. But it was Eddie, and he had a point. "Blame the parents," she said with a shrug, idly swirling her half-empty cup. "Well, parent in my case. World-famous cat burglar Thomas Hardy. I was just trying to follow in Daddy's footsteps while he wasn't around."

Eddie clicked his tongue, somehow making it into an empathetic sound. "Been there, tried that. Got the emotional scars to prove it."

"Really?" Felicia asked, not that she found it hard to believe. She'd just never given much thought to Eddie as a child, or anything other than Venom.

"Yeah." He leaned back, stretching a leg over the edge of the rooftop. "Mine spent my entire childhood blaming me for killing my own mother just by being born. So that kinda got in the way of anything like a healthy relationship."

He said it not like it was a slice of good old-fashioned family trauma, more like it was an interesting bit of trivia he just so happened to know. It was the tell-tale sign that he'd long since made peace with the facts, as sad as they were. All of a sudden, the man that he was made a lot more sense to Felicia. Understanding was forced upon her, deep and rich and jarring, and she could only give one immediate reaction to it.

"Ouch." She tried to cover up the awkwardness with a gulp of cold coffee, though Eddie didn't seem all that bothered by it. With all the shit he'd been through, she wasn't so surprised anymore by what did make him angry, and by just how angry he could get.

"But don't let me one-up you in that department," he said apologetically, leaning his head against a giant clawed hand. "Do go on about Daddy's footsteps."

He was joking, yet he still managed to sound genuinely interested. Maybe just to see how his father stacked up against hers.

"I guess I was hoping to eventually catch up to him at the end of them," she said. "Course, he wasn't around to tell me that was exactly what he _didn't_ want me doing. Not until right at the fucking end." She sighed, not afraid to make the sound as dramatic as it deserved to be. "Typical men, never telling you what the hell they want until it's too late."

"That's a sweeping generalisation," Eddie said.

"But it's true."

"Course it is. I was just saying what it also was." He leaned his head over his shoulder, away from Felicia. "What about you, Symby? You got any daddy issues we should know about?"

The surface of his arm rippled, and the black on his shoulder bubbled up until it resembled a serpentine face. Its hidden mouth didn't move, but Felicia could hear it speak in her mind just as Eddie did.

"_**My parent expired on Klyntar from lack of resources shortly after I was spawned."**_

Felicia felt like Symby was the lucky one out of all three of them.

"So we have an absent dad, a shitty dad, and a dead dad." Eddie gestured between them all as he matched up the bad parenting to each victim. "Full house."

"Must not be so full if the dad isn't there in two of them," Felicia pointed out, and almost toppled off the roof when Eddie actually laughed. More like a bark, really, but it was still something she'd never heard from him before.

"Touchè," he praised, while she was still trying to recover. He was smiling. He'd done that before, but this one was much more than skin-deep. Baring his fangs not as a threat or as defense, but simply because he couldn't keep his mouth closed. She swore that he was glowing, and not just from the neon bathing them both.

He'd just laid out part of his soul to her, let her prod it and joke about it, and somehow he was happier because of it. Maybe just because of her. She wondered if it was proper to feel proud of herself for it. At least, for giving back instead of taking for once.

"Well, I may be biased," she said, uncurling her legs so that they dangled beside his, "but I think we turned out alright."

Eddie twitched his eyebrows in a facial shrug, as Symby's face dissolved back into him. "I suppose someone out there's done worse than eat a few brains cause Dad didn't love them enough."

Felicia was about to nod, but the symbiote-carrying elephant in the room that, until now, had been happy to mind its own business was starting to trumpet and stamp and wreck the damn place. She'd heard the stories, sure. Heard him threaten Peter enough with a thousand different ways to end up in his teeth. Not that Peter really seemed to ever believe him, but just because he had all his limbs intact didn't mean that the threats, or Venom's belly, were all empty.

"Have you... ever actually eaten anyone?" she asked, biting the bullet like he would have bitten a head off.

Eddie looked at her, then away for a moment before forcing his guilty gaze back to her. "Well… there was this one time," he said slowly, dragging it out with the aching surgical precision of a man who really didn't want it to go any deeper.

Felicia braced for the worst, because she had to know what the worst was. "Really?"

"Yeah…" He hissed uncomfortably through his teeth. "She seemed to like it, though." Then he burst out into a grin, blowing apart the tension he'd so deliberately built up just as she swatted at him. God, how long had he been waiting to make that joke?! Too long, from how he laughed again; another sound that just from its sincerity almost bowled her over for a second time. He was having the time of his life- and Felicia couldn't help joining in, since her annoyed pout only seemed to make him laugh even more.

"With a tongue like Venom's, I bet she did." Even as she said it, she realised her mistake. She'd just pointed out yet another elephant that was waving its trunk around very, very suggestively. Venom's tongue was pretty much impossible for anyone to ignore, but even then most tried not to think too much about it. What it could do… how long it really was. Felicia wished her coffee was still hot so it could hide the blush that was starting to ruin her face, but the more she tried to ignore the line of thought she'd just opened the worse its effects became. Looking at Eddie, trying to remind herself of the man behind the tongue, didn't help at all. Yet she knew it wouldn't. And she still kept doing it. The heat on her face was starting to get unbearable- dammit, Felicia, just stop staring at that gorgeous smile!- and she had to bite down on her lip to keep her mouth closed, trying to drag her eyes away, resisting the urge to slap herself-

Not that Eddie noticed any of it, thank God.

"I wish…" He sighed, looking at her just as she managed to regain some self control. "Believe it or not, most women don't stick around when they find out they have to share you with slime from outer space."

"...I think some girls would be into that," she admitted, all that she was willing to admit.

"Well, if you know any who don't dress up like rabbits, you can give them my number."

She nodded, letting the night wind chase away her burning blush. "I will. If you find me a guy who only has one kind of webshooter."

'_And keeps it in his pants where it belongs,' _she added silently, forcing her attention back to the task at hand. Waiting for Shrike to appear. Watching the door. Not watching Eddie. Paying attention to the door. Not Eddie. Not Venom. Not thinking about that infectious laugh even as it tugged at the corners of her mouth.

Not thinking about any of it… hoping that Symby hadn't been paying attention to what she'd been thinking about before. But she'd hidden it. Tried to, at least. And it had said that as long as she tried to hide a thought, it couldn't-

"...Can I ask… something personal?" Eddie ventured.

Oh, shit. She didn't manage to hide it after all. Felicia chased all trace of panic from her face before turning it towards him again.

"Well, you've gone over a week without biting any heads off, so I'd say you've earned a chance."

Even with her permission, Eddie took his sweet time in getting it out. "What did you see in Parker that made you… go after him?"

Felicia blinked. It wasn't what she was scared to hear, but even so… it was strange that he was asking. Maybe he was just trying to figure out what kind of good other people saw in his mortal enemy. If so, at this point in her life she was the wrong person to ask.

"Nothing," she answered honestly. "It was never Peter that I was in love with. Hell, when he told me who he really was, I was heartbroken. He was so… boring. How was I supposed to reconcile a man who saved the city every night with one who could barely pay his rent?"

She remembered that night. From the moment he removed his mask, she remembered everything after it like the heartbreak had branded her brain. How real the pain in her chest had felt even though she felt so stupid for it, stupid for letting herself believe that the Spider-Man she fell for could really possibly match up to what she thought of him. She knew it wasn't Peter's fault that, under the mask, he was just as ordinary as she was under hers- at least, as she was back then. Even so, she'd hated that he let her in on the secret. That he'd almost ruined what they had, just because he'd wanted to make it into something better.

She'd thought her days as a crime boss were her darkest ones, but no. The bitterness she'd felt towards Peter, the selfishness that had consumed her long after she'd tried to make peace with it… that was the Felicia she'd just turned back into, and it was the one she'd been trying to run away from all along.

Eddie still looked at her, not betraying whether or not he was surprised by what he heard. "Alright, lemme rephrase it," he said. "What did you see in Spider-Man?"

Felicia opened her mouth, but nothing came out. If she'd been asked that ten years ago, she wouldn't have been able to stop the reasons for loving him from gushing out. Now, she couldn't even dredge up one that didn't make her sound as shallow as she really was. She looked away from Eddie, turning the question over and over until she found something to give to it. When it finally did find it, she wasn't entirely sure that it even came from her.

"Same thing I guess Symby saw in him," she said. "Another kind of life…. took me a long time to realise that it wasn't one I really wanted." She stood up, working some circulation back into her numb legs as she stretched them. "Bit of advice, Eddie. If you need to change who you are to make someone else happy, and I mean completely overhaul your whole self, then it's not meant to be."

Eddie looked up at her, though even with her standing and him sitting he was still just as tall as her. "What if it's to change for the better?" he asked.

When she'd been with Peter, had asked herself that more times she could count. It was only recently that she'd found the answer to it. "They'll still always hate you for what you once were."

Something flickered in Eddie's eyes. Something similar to the harsh jolt of sudden understanding she'd felt before. Before she could try and decipher it, a door banged open down below. She angled her head down, and saw their target being dragged out of the bar with his ponytail by another of her former employees; the Melter. He had Shrike's arm slumped over his shoulder as his friend's feet dragged behind, though he himself didn't look all that sober.

This was going to be a bloodbath.

"Your audience awaits." Felicia gestured down to the stumbling idiots as Eddie put his scary face on with an eager grin.

"**About time. You have the camera ready?" **He wasn't about to give up on the idea he inadvertently stole from Peter. Unless it was really Symby's idea all along… Felicia sighed but nodded anyway, taking up position while Venom found a good spot to ambush from. She aimed the viewfinder down at them, listening in on their slurs and hiccups and wondering why she even hired either of them in the first place.

"I'm… I'm tellin' ya', Melt, these guys… they're the real deal. Y'know he even brought Hammer back from the dead? Legit, I mean like, legit fuckin' ressurection!"

"Bullshit. They're fucking pussies, Shrike, that's why they wear hoods. I'm telling you, just forget 'bout them. Take Ozzie's money and run."

"Nuh uh. Nuh uh, man. Os' just the start. You get in with this guy, you get away with _anything._ Trust me, and I'll even get you in with 'im!"

"Just do me a favour. Don't come haunting me when ya' end up dead."

"**Dead or alive," **Venom snarled, landing right in front of them and taking up the whole camera sight, "**you're coming with us."**


	15. Night 10 Part 2

"'RoboCop'?" Felicia called out. "Seriously?"

"It's a good movie!" Eddie argued, his voice echoing off the tiles in her bathroom over the hiss of the shower. "One of my favourites!"

That didn't surprise her. Felicia shook her head with a smile that stubbornly refused to go away as she sat back on her bed. The fight with Shrike and Melter had to be cut short by Venom realising that, even if they were both hammered, going against super-heated gauntlets with an alien that hated fire probably wasn't a good idea. He'd only managed to keep them occupied while Felicia stretched her bad luck muscles; a stray electric bolt from Shrike had overloaded Melter's weaponry, and the drunk sap was so concerned by his friend being fried that he didn't even see Venom slipping back into the neon-edged shadows above. The smell of burnt ozone had followed him all the way back to her apartment, and she was practically shoving Eddie into the bathroom when they tumbled through window.

They'd confirmed Osborn's plan of using people as bait to get access to The Hood, but they still didn't know why the hell he _wanted _in with him. Even with keeping in mind what Liz Allan had said about Norman wanting to take over the city's gangs for himself, they weren't any closer to knowing the whole truth. Most worryingly of all, they still had no idea what Norman was planning to use Cletus Kasady for...

Felicia sighed, and reached under her pillow. The trashy chick-lit she'd sworn she'd get finished sat there with ten pages still to go. How did the author plan to wrap up the whole billionaire's-illegitimate-son-kidnapping-his-new-wife's-child plot in that little time? That wasn't a question that Felicia was so desperate to see the answer to. Instead she just pulled out the paper scrap she'd used to mark her place, unfolding it and scanning the semi-encrypted list scrawled over it. Tarantula hadn't made it too easy for her to decipher, but once she'd figured out White Rabbit's location the rest were child's play. She crossed off the Rabbit as a dead end, still leaving a number of others worth taking a look at. Even so, she couldn't tell which ones were just pawns like Rabbit and which ones were serious threats. At least, she couldn't tell from anyone else's perspective but her own. Killer Shrike was once one of her most important enforcers, yet Osborn obviously didn't think much of him if he was just gonna use him as a sacrifice. So she couldn't even trust what she knew about the others to narrow things down…

God, it was like trying to track Carnage down all over again, all across the city as he slaughtered it. She just couldn't put herself in the mind of a psychopath like that… though she figured that was a good thing in the long run. Maybe she could let her luck kick in and just choose a name at random? Then ag

ain, if she asked too much of it it tended to flip right back on her. Hell, for all she knew the loss of her empire was precisely the result of her greed tipping the scales too far. Karma had kicked her in the ass just to remind her of her place in reality, that just because she could skew probability didn't mean she was immune to it.

So, at the risk of upsetting whatever gods in spandex were keeping an eye on her, Felicia swiftly rejected that one and only idea. Then she groaned into her pillow, smooshing it over her face to muffle her frustration and give some comfort to her pounding head. When she pulled it back off, she felt a little better. Enough so for her to sit back up on her bed, focusing now on the symbiote sat coiled at the foot of it. Symby had curled itself there when it slipped off of Eddie, and hadn't budged since then.

"You okay, Symby?" Felicia asked, prompting the alien to surge upright and slip its eyes over its head towards her. "Melter didn't get you too bad, did he?" She'd seen how parts of Venom had literally bubbled away from the heat of his gloves, but Symby shook its head. Like a smear of ink brushing to and fro in the air.

"_**No. No… I've just been thinking."**_

It did that a lot, Felicia had noticed. More than some humans thought in their whole lives (then again, that was only a hundred years compared to the thousands that symbiotes could last for).

"About what?" she asked.

"_**My past hosts… like Mac Gargan."**_

The Scorpion. Or, as Felicia knew him just before he got arrested, her right hand man. And he'd earned that spot from a lot more than just working for her. "What about him?"

"_**He hates me for what we did together. Yet he didn't resist when we were bonded. Didn't even fight against my impulses, even though they disgusted him**_**." **Symby shivered, rippling like a puddle of oil hit by a gust of wind. As disgusted with itself as anyone else was. If it was inside Gargan's brain for any amount of time, Felicia couldn't imagine how it could feel anything _other _than disgust. Everyone had heard about what 'Venorpion' had done, after all, even worse stories than those spread about Eddie. She had to resist reaching out towards the symbiote, since something told her that only Eddie was allowed to touch it. So she only scooted closer, crossing her legs under her as she prepared to play xeno-therapist.

"From what I know of Gargan, Symby," she said, "he's always been a sick puppy. You weren't making him do fucked up shit, you were just his excuse to get away with it. Once you were gone, he didn't have that excuse anymore, so he had to feel sorry about it afterwards to save himself. Why do you care what he thinks of you, anyway?"

Symby looked up at her for a few moments, eyes disappearing for half of them as it blinked slowly. "_**It just makes me wonder... if Eddie secretly hates me too,"**_ it confessed_._ "_**He wondered something similar about me last night, but… it only made me think of what I'm smothering in him. What I'm really doing to him that will one day tear him apart."**_

Felicia felt her breath hitch. She was hearing what had always tormented her about Peter and Flash, what she'd always feared but could never articulate into something that she could recognise and deal with, finally put into words after all these years away from them both. The worst part was that she hadn't cared whether or not they hated her until long after she broke their hearts. It was a trend she'd set with all her boyfriends, so predictable and tiring that she'd just stopped bothering to have any, but it was only those two who still sometimes kept her awake at night thinking about them. So there was only one solution that worked for her.

"Don't think like that, Symby," she preached. "Trust me. It'll only tear _you_ apart long before you do it to anyone else."

Symby bowed its neck, retracting it back into its body so that its head rested in the middle of itself. "_**I already drove him away once,"**_ it lamented. "_**I don't know how to stop it from happening again."**_

Felicia had another easy solution for that issue; don't bother trying to stop them. Every time she'd held on too tightly she'd only ended up making them want to escape from her.

But she'd never had a man like Eddie. She felt like anything she tried to pull from her own experience would be completely moot when applied to him.

In any case, she had nothing else to offer Symby except assurance that it was only thinking like a human would.

"Well... I at least know exactly how that feels."

Symby had been looking toward the bathroom door, and now it swivelled its eyes back onto her. "_**What you said about changing yourself for someone… does it apply the other way around? If someone else tries to change for you…"**_

"Then it's not the same situation." Felicia shook her head, stray wisps of white shaking loose over her ears. "Wanting to change and being forced to can't be compared like that."

"_**But then, what is the difference between them?"**_

"If you want to do it, it's because you recognise that something in you needs to be improved. If they're demanding it, it's because they have a problem with who you are. Or what you are. But that doesn't mean it _is _a problem, you know?"

Symby nodded slowly. "_**I think so… is that why you never left crime for Peter?"**_

"...Yeah. Pretty much." Felicia was content to call that the main reason, if only so she didn't need to think of what all the other ones might have been.

Symby, however, wasn't content to just let her off that easily.

"_**Despite everything,"**_ it said, "_**he was always so fond of you. Overwhelmingly so."**_

Felicia scoffed. "Honestly, I don't really want to hear about him. That's in the past. I've moved on."

"_**Have you really**_**?" **The symbiote's skepticism made her reevaluate just how much of her brain it could see into.

"Yes," she insisted. "So let's just leave it at that." She crossed her arms tightly over her chest, fully aware of how petulant she must have looked as she turned away. Thinking about Peter always sent her into moods like that, and trying _not _to think about him only made it worse. Somehow he managed to bring out both the best and worst in her... it was because of him that Felicia had realised she didn't _need _to change, just to fit into someone else's life that wasn't made with someone like her in mind. At the same time, she'd changed so much of herself to do the opposite, to become the bane of his life if he wouldn't let her into it, that she'd ended up with a life of her own that she just couldn't hold onto, not even with all her claws sharpened to a razor point.

If she'd only built up her empire to spite the spider, then she deserved to lose it. She'd deserved a lot of what happened to her... all because she'd dedicated herself so much to the revenge that she'd lost herself in pursuit of it.

She'd only let that happen before with one other man. Not like Peter, or Flash, or anyone else she'd had chasing after her. Not like any other man she'd ever let near her again.

"_**I remember when we fought Carnage together."**_ Felicia jumped; Symby had slipped right next to her, lying just below her knee. "_**A long time ago,**_" it went on. "_**And you were angry at the spider for saving you, when he should have went after Carnage instead. You didn't place much value on your own life then."**_

Felicia blinked, not knowing why that was being brought up. "I just thought stopping that psycho was more important. If one thief has to die to save a city, then why not me?" She shrugged, just as she had done back then when she realised how likely it was that she might die before the night was over.

Symby tilted its head, the black flowing down like ink caught in the bottom of a transparent balloon. "_**It's strange. You value others lives over your own. But that alone makes your life worth more than most."**_

"I don't really get your point."

"_**My point is that you're a good person, Felicia."**_

Even though Symby was wrong, she had to smile. "And that confuses you, doesn't it?"

"_**It would have, not so long ago. But I've learned that what makes someone good and what makes them innocent aren't the same thing. And… I've noticed something, as well."**_ Symby rippled, drawing itself up until its head was level with Felicia's chin. "_**I seem to be drawn to you."**_

She felt her eyebrows crease in confusion, as she met Symby's eyes that were somehow both blank and bulging with thoughts that she couldn't quite separate from the rest of the white. "How so?" she asked, determined to untangle whatever she could from the symbiote.

"_**Other than Peter, you were one of the first humans I had any contact with. And almost every host I've had, every one I've had on Earth… they all end up linked to you somehow."**_

Peter, Flash, Mac, and now Eddie… the alien had a point. "Well, I can't really explain why myself," she admitted. "But it sounds like you have your own theory for why that is."

Its eyes narrowed, closing off even more of what Felicia was trying to see. Then it asked, "_**Are you familiar with quantum entanglement?"**_

Laughter burst out from halfway between her mouth and nose, resulting in a snort. "Can't say I am."

"_**It describes two entities whose structures are linked together so closely that their states mirror each other, regardless of how far away they are. It's how I can sense Eddie's thoughts, and your own, even though I'm not touching either of you."**_

Felicia nodded slowly. She'd never liked working with the brainiac villains precisely because she never understood what the hell they were talking about (hell even Peter had that habit of needing to make himself known as the smartest guy in the room), but at least Symby had made it easy enough for her to pick apart. "Okay… so how does that apply here?"

"_**To put it simply... I think there's a link between you and I. Something stronger than the clone's bond that lets us hear each other. Something molecular, anchored into the fabric of the multiverse."**_

The multiverse. Another thing she hated about the brainiacs; they always had to go messing with other universes, as if theirs wasn't messed up enough. It was one of those things that she knew existed but if she thought too hard about it she only got a headache for her troubles, like magic and the Savage Land and fact that people actually voted someone like the Kingpin into office. Dealing with her own life was difficult enough; she didn't need to be bothered with the lives of _other_ versions of herself. Better versions, even.

And now the alien was telling her that she probably didn't even have a choice in ignoring any of it. After all, who better than an alien to know what the hell was going on with the state of this universe, or any others?

"...Should I be worried by it?" she asked, knowing she would regardless of the answer.

"_**No,"**_ Symby said. "_**But perhaps you should be prepared."**_

"For what?"

"_**For Eddie to notice it like I have. Though… you seem prepared enough already."**_

Symby narrowed its eyes again, and Felicia narrowed hers right back. "What's that supposed to mean?"

It gurgled, though she was beginning to recognise the sound as the symbiote version of a chuckle. "_**You're not the first woman to be attracted to him, Felicia. And you've made that attraction obvious enough."**_

Felicia stiffened. Just when she thought she was in the clear from earlier that night… Symby must have been listening in her head the whole time. She forced down a blush with sheer willpower as the alien silently judged her.

"I flirt with just about every man I've known for more than five minutes. It's pretty much just a habit at this point." It wasn't entirely a lie, yet Symby still didn't buy it.

"_**I think it's more than that."**_

Dammit, it really wasn't letting her get out of this one without losing something… she sighed in defeat, adding a dramatic flair to her submission by flopping backwards on her bed.

"Okay, okay, Eddie... _is _a handsome guy." Ridiculously handsome, actually, once you ignored the whole 'drooling monster' thing. "And he knows he is. He could get just about any woman he wanted, but he doesn't have one. Must be because he doesn't want one. Or need one. Not when he has you." She'd hoped that would make the alien stop tormenting her over being a weak-willed human woman, but she only seemed to encourage it even more.

"_**Or maybe he just struggles to find one he **_**does** _**want," **_it suggested, hovering over her face as its tongue darted out. Felicia sighed once again, forcing air through her teeth as she squeezed her eyes shut.

"You'd know better than me, being in his brain most of the time," she muttered.

"_**I would…"**_

Then, though her eyes were definitely still closed, Felicia saw something. Someone. Just a flashing glimpse of her, a silhouette caught in the sunspots behind her lids. It wasn't anyone she knew, yet she felt like she was on the very cusp of finding her name. It buzzed in the static bouncing off her skull, but was ultimately lost in it. And then, in the very same instant she noticed it, it was all gone.

She would have dismissed the whole thing, if she didn't know that none of it was coming from her. She sat up again.

"Who is she?"

Symby had retreated to its favourite spot at the foot of the bed. It blinked one eye at her, and then the other, as its tongue snaked out again. "_**She?"**_

"The woman you keep trying not to think about."

For the first time Felicia knew of, Symby didn't move at all. It was like its entire body had been flash-frozen, not a single wave or ripple or quiver interrupting the black surface of its mass. For the first time, it actually looked like it belonged in the void of space.

"_**...Not my place to say,**_" the void answered, as it melted back into its ambient motion. With nothing more to go digging for, Felicia gave it the kind of mercy that it hadn't given her.

"Fair enough."

Symby seemed to expect something more from her, and when it didn't come it spread back towards her like a puddle. "_**For what it's worth... I hope you and Eddie stay close after this is over. Whether or not we are really entangled... I like you."**_

Felicia knew how the surprise must have looked on her face. Not just from what she heard, from realising that Symby was resting on her knee. She hadn't even felt it touching her skin, but now that she knew it was there she noticed a warm glow over the tendons there. It looked up at her, as if inviting her to do what she'd resisted before. Her hand carefully went towards its head, her fingers softly touching the black as it seemed to swell out between them. It wasn't nearly as sticky or wet as she'd thought it would be. In fact. it wasn't wet at all. If she had to compare it to anything, it was like placing her hand against warm leather.

"...I like you, too," she said, dragging her hand gently down its length. It purred. Yes, that was definitely a purr she heard. It was so loud, so jarring that it made Felicia realise it was the only sound she could hear in the room. The hiss of the shower had ended, and Eddie was surely about to walk out at any moment.

"You better not tell him any of what I just said," she whispered, letting the symbiote slip out of her hand as her hand finished passing down it.

"_**If I had lips,"**_ Symby promised, "_**they'd be sealed tight." **_

She just had to trust it, as it dripped off the bed and zipped into the bathroom through the crack in the door. Otherwise she'd never hear the end of it from Eddie… as Symby advised, she prepared herself for the worst as he stepped out-

And ended up doubled over from laughter on her bed, at the sight of him stubbornly pawing at the static mess of his hair. Even when it was wet, all the electricity build-up he'd caught from Killer Shrike made his hair refuse to stay flat against his scalp.

"Unbelievable." He groaned as he gave up, scowling at his reflection in her mirror. "How long does it take for static to go away?"

"I think it looks good," Felicia teased. "Just needs some styling-" She stood up and lunged towards him, trawling her fingers through his hair in a deliberate attempt to make it even messier.

"Hey, hey! Cut it out! Symby, help!" Even with all his strength and size, Eddie's attempts to swat her away were futile. She didn't release him until he looked like he'd just been dragged out of bed, and he scowled when she stepped back to admire her work.

"Very funny, Felicia. If you're done acting like a five year old…"

She stifled the last of her giggles as they bubbled out. "Okay, okay, no fun allowed. Back to work." She returned to the edge of her bed, biting her knuckle in case she started laughing again. "So, we know Shrike was definitely going to a Hood initiation."

"Not anymore, of course," Eddie said, trying to comb some control through his scalp with black claws.

"And since he wasn't on Tarantula's memo, someone assumed he was probably gonna die to get someone else in. That at least narrows some of the list down." She reached behind her to grab it, scanning it once again for anything she might have missed.

"So anyone not on it might be used as Hood bait?" Eddie asked.

"Anyone not on it for the later dates, at least."

"And we can't risk allowing someone to die just to tail a new recruit."

"So let's should shift focus on someone who's already in the gang, assuming we can find one."

Eddie nodded, rubbing his claws against the back of his neck. "Who else is on that list?"

"Quite a few names I recognised, though most of them were put down for dates that have already passed. Might be better to just go _anyone_ who used to work for me." Felicia stood up to pace as she listed them off. "There was the Spot, Jack O'Lantern, Boomerang-"

"Wait, there's actually someone called Boomerang? I thought I was just joking!"

Felicia had to laugh to herself. Boomerang was a special one as far as she was concerned; he might have upgraded his suit to something a little less embarrassing than what he started in, but that didn't stop him from letting a three hundred million dollar painting falling right into her hands. But that was a story for another time.

"Look up any word in the dictionary and there's bound to be a costume named after it," was all she said for now. "Who else… the Grimm twins, Gargan- then again, he's in jail and the Scorpion suit is under lockdown-, then there's 8-Ball, Dragonclaw-"

"Wait, wait." Eddie held up an unclawed hand to interrupt her. "Say that again."

"Dragonclaw?"

"No, the one before."

"8-Ball…"

"I think I know who that is."

"He's pretty hard to miss."

"Black suit, dumbass looking pool ball on his head?"

"Like I said, he's pretty hard to miss."

"We always saw him hanging around the Financial District." Symby rippled around Eddie's chest in agreement, and with 8-Ball's gambling habit Felicia wasn't surprised to hear it. "Stupid costumes aren't illegal, though, so we just ignored him."

"When was the last time you saw him?"

Eddie scrunched his eyebrows together as he thought, but Symby had an answer long before he could dig one up.

"_**A few nights ago. Just a few hours after we found Looter's body."**_

"Really?" Eddie asked. "I don't remember seeing him…"

"_**You were half-asleep at the time. But I saw him. I know I did."**_

Felicia was already piecing the picture together. 8-Ball wasn't exactly one of the more intimidating guys on her payroll, but he brought in his fair share and she'd heard enough about what he could do when cornered to let him handle himself. For all she knew, he was doing a lot more shady shit with his pool cue than hustling anyone dumb or desperate enough to play against him.

"And you said there were wood splinters in Looter's wound… shit." That might as well have confirmed it for her. "8-Ball probably killed him for his Hood initiation."

"If he did, he's fucking dead too." Eddie said it so casually that he might as well have been reading from the obituaries. Once again, Felicia was more impressed than scared by his conviction. So long as he kept it exclusively for those who deserved it.

"First we need to make sure he actually did," she reminded him. "And to do that, we need to find him."

Eddie nodded once, and his hair was finally starting to lie flat again. "Okay… so if we find him, he _might _lead us to the Hood, who will then somehow lead back to Osborn."

"Or Cletus."

"Yeah, how could I possibly forget about him…" The sarcasm was heavy on his tongue as he forced it through his clenched teeth.

"Or we might be chasing another dead end," Felicia suggested, covering all possibilities no matter how bleak they are.

Eddie shrugged. "Won't know until we get to the end of it. As for how we find him… I'd say the Financial District is our best bet."

Felicia agreed. "Guess I'll meet you there tomorrow, then." She held open the window for him as he climbed out.

"Oh, Felicia?" He crouched on the edge between her apartment and the night outside, and fixed his voice into a robotic monotone right out of his favourite movie. "Stay out of trouble."

She rolled her eyes and almost shoved him out into the night just so he wouldn't see her grinning because of him. "Good night, you fucking dork."

He winked before he left. And thank God he did leave, because her heart felt like it was threatening to fall after him.

'_It's never normal guys for you, is it, Felicia?' _she asked herself later that night. '_It's always the nerds who climb walls.'_

Well, not always. But considering what the alternative turned out to be…

She fell asleep before she could think any more about that.


	16. Night 13

"Any sign of him?" Felicia asked.

Eddie looked over his shoulder at her as she scaled the wall to their little stakeout camp close to Wall Street. She was a little later than she usually had been the past few nights, and she had something tucked under her shoulder.

"Same as the last two nights. Nothing." He sighed and clenched his claws, while Symby used its eyes to keep watching the streets below. "I guess you didn't see anything on your way either?"

"No," she answered, "but I got us both something to make the night go a little quicker." She pulled out the small boxes she was carrying, handing one to him. Eddie frowned as he took it, though the smell coming from it was making his mouth water.

"This isn't chocolate," he said, skeptically inching it open and peering in at the burger inside.

"No. It's proper food." Felicia peeled a glove off and took a healthy bite from her own burger as she sat on the edge of the roof. "So eat up," she mumbled through a mouthful. Eddie still frowned, but once he saw the food he was hit with the realisation that he hadn't actually eaten anything for days- at least, anything that wasn't chocolate. And once it hit, he ended up devouring half the burger in one bite, tearing it apart with his almost-fangs. He felt his stomach rumble, both his own and Symby's anticipation making it start to sweat out digestive fluids through the lining

"Symby told you I haven't been eating enough, didn't it?" he asked, as he broke a piece off and hovered it under the symbiote's mouth.

"Think of it repayment for the noodles," Felicia said. "And yes, it has. We're both very disappointed in you."

Eddie grunted through a full mouth as Symby silently scolded him. "Most of the time, I'm just too angry to eat…"

That's what he'd figured it was that made him go weeks on end without food, as well as Symby's own metabolism. Even if he spent the whole night prowling rooftops and slamming thugs against brick walls, he'd barely spend any of the next morning hungry. The latent hunger for brains that came with being Venom also didn't help to put him in a dining mood... he didn't want to eat organs, Symby didn't want to eat long-dead meat. Long after their bond finally settled, it took them until now to fall in synch with each others appetites.

"Try music," Felicia suggested. "Helps calm me down."

Symby shivered around Eddie. Its first experiences with sound on Earth were painful, almost lethal, and it wanted to flinch away from anything that wasn't speech. He'd had to slowly teach it that not all sounds were bad, and even once he'd achieved that it still preferred silence. Easier to hear his heartbeat that way, it had told him.

"We're… picky when it comes to music," Eddie said. "Have to be careful, cause certain combinations of chords or going too loud or even just some instruments… they all hurt Symby."

Felicia stopped chewing for a few seconds, then dipped her gloved hand into her suit where it opened at her chest. "I think I have something that'll fit what you're looking for." She barely needed to rummage to find it (which was just as well with how tight the fit was…), though Eddie still felt like he probably should have averted his eyes as she pulled it out. It looked like some kind of music player, a tiny square smaller than her palm, with earphones wrapped around it. Eddie was less astounded by how small it was than by where it came from.

"Where the hell do you even keep everything in there?"

Felicia wiggled her eyebrows. "A girl has to have _some_ secrets, Eddie." She started unwinding the earphones, putting one in her ear as she tapped through whatever songs were on the device. Her eyes lit up on one, and she held the other bud out to him. "Here you go."

As he usually was whenever he was offered something, Eddie was hesitant.

"C'mon, I promise it's not deadly." Felicia wasn't going to let up until he took it. So he did, rolling it between his fingers as a tune leaked out from it, and he listened.

It took some seconds for him to pick up on the melody, barging right into it instead of easing into it from the beginning, but once he did he found himself… falling into it. Running after it. It wasn't like what he used to listen to, but...

He closed his other ear to let his other hear better, and found his eyes closing too. He found much that surprised him, like the buzz in his throat that was him humming along, and that the dull throb that usually haunted his head was drowned out.

Even Symby, once it saw Eddie wasn't in pain like it feared, reached out and oozed into the bud, wrapping itself around the wires, making the music its core. And there it stayed, not flinching or hissing or recoiling from the sounds. Eddie could feel it rippling against the rhythm, like it always would against that of his pulse. The song even sounded like a heartbeat, gentle and calm and not at all like his own. Maybe that was why Symby liked it so much, why it wanted to anchor itself in that calm sea of sound. It must have been so used to drowning in the adrenaline that constantly flooded his blood that anything more tranquil than that constant hormonal storm would be instantly appealing. Eddie didn't blame it. Most of the time, he wanted a break from himself too.

"What does Symby think?"

He jolted, as Felicia's voice came over the fading end of the song. She must have been watching him, her head tilted in curiosity and amusement, both painfully genuine.

"_I like it,_" Symby answered.

"How about you?" she asked to Eddie.

"...I love it."

Felicia smiled- God, what a beautiful fucking smile. Had he just not noticed it before? No, he definitely had. How could he not? Then how was it only now that it was making him freeze up? Was Symby paralysing him? No, it was still running itself through the earphones, so why did his bones feel so heavy-?

"Your burger's gonna fall," she told him, and suddenly his arm and the fingers attached to it felt far too light.

"Huh? Shit-!" He recovered a second too late to save it, and not even Symby could get a tendril down after it fast enough. There was a cry far below as someone on their way home just had a thousand-dollar suit ruined.

"Nice one," Felicia praised. "Here, you can finish mine." She handed the half-eaten burger over to him with one hand while the other took the earbud back.

"You sure?" Eddie felt like he had to ask even as he was shoving it into his mouth.

"You need the calories more than I do, big guy."

Eddie resisted a glance down at her figure to confirm that as she made the music player disappear back into her impossibly spacious suit. He was sure that there was some kind of magic involved with it, maybe something to do with the Quantum Realm or whatever the hell they called it. Though that would've had nothing to do with slimming her down, she was just like that underneath it (not that he'd been thinking a lot about what was underneath… trying not to at least, not since he'd lingered a little too long in her window).

"Hey, Eddie."

Shit, did he end up looking down anyway? She sounded like she wanted to ask something, maybe finally noticing that he kept staring at her. Shit. Shit! He kept himself busy chewing as he acknowledged her, hoping any guilt would be covered up by the frantic workings of his jaw.

"Since you got to ask something personal before..." Felicia had pulled her glove back on, and she wreathed her clawed fingers together. "I'm wondering if I get one too."

Eddie swallowed. Not what he'd been scared of, but he knew he wasn't in the clear just yet. Still, it was only fair that she got to ask. "Alright. Shoot."

She looked away for a second, pulling her legs back from the edge of the roof and putting her knees under her chin.

"...What's it like? Being bonded with a symbiote?"

Just as well Eddie had stopped eating, otherwise he thought he might have choked. Usually whenever he got asked that it was with an air of 'what the hell were you thinking, letting an alien live inside you?' or 'no, seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you?!'. Felicia didn't have any of that, which made him at once both suspicious and grateful.

"I'd've thought being a puppet to Maniac would've answered that for you," he said, uncertainty making it a little hard to speak.

"I mean a _proper_ bond," she pressed. "Like what you have Symby have."

She really did want to know… but how was he supposed to answer? Even though he and Symby had only been reunited for just over half a year, he could hardly remember what he'd been like without it. Which was both a blessing and a curse, since it also made him very aware of everything they'd done together, past and present and even what they _might _do in an unstable future. After all that, it was easier to say what _not _being bonded felt like.

He'd have to go back to the beginning, as painful as it was. He'd have to remember life without it, and try not to miss any of it.

"When it's first settling in... it hurts like a bitch." It really had. Symby had warned him it would, but he still hadn't been prepared for it. He could practically feel his blood moving through his arteries, like sludge.

Not just physically painful, but exhausting too. He had to trust it to move his lungs for him, squeezing around each air sac while he spent days on end feeling like he was drowning in the slime. By the time he realised that his diaphragm wasn't spasming with every breath, the rest of his muscles had finally stopped trying to crush his bones. The worse the symptom was, the longer it took to pass. Well, not pass. More like he had adapted to them existing. Maybe even that he had evolved to need them. That would've explained why the withdrawal was so hard...

"And you're hungry," he added. "All the goddamn time. I think I went through my whole fridge three times during that first week. But... after it fades, it's like you've gone your whole life missing something and only just realised it. Takes some getting used to, sharing all your organs like that, but once everything falls in synch… you wonder how you ever lived without it. Having someone else breathe for you, someone to share everything you see and hear and taste, it… just feels so natural. Like, this is the way humans should be. Like…"

He stopped himself just in time, just before Symby's voice over his own ended up saying too much. Felicia noticed.

"Go on."

He shook his head. "You'll laugh."

"I won't.

"Yes, you will."

"I won't! I promise."

He wanted to trust her, if only to properly answer her, but even before Symby came along things like that had never come easy for him.

"_**I believe her, Eddie."**_ The symbiote whispered encouragement, squeezing in a familiar rhythm around his larynx. The song she'd given them. Eddie rubbed the back of his neck, biting his lip, trying to find any reason to doubt Symby or Felicia. Even though he couldn't, he still felt like he'd regret what was to come.

"For a long time… Symby was all I had. It was the only thing stopping me from being... completely alone. It's never _just_ been a suit to me. And when we're together… it's like we're the only two people who exist in the universe. Everything else is just static. It's… a lot like when I was married." That word caught in his throat, like paper tearing on jagged metal, and it came out as a ragged murmur. "The good parts of it, at least. It's... kinda like an endless honeymoon, I guess."

He remembered his honeymoon with Annie.

He remembered a lot about her.

Life before the symbiote. Life before Spider-Man.

Life before he'd killed her.

"So, Symby's… like a wife to you," Felicia guessed.

He knew Symby wasn't Annie, but for so long it had been the closest thing he could find to her. And after she died, it was the _only _thing he could find. As if it had absorbed her, or at least what he'd remembered of her.

He'd remembered so much, too much, and he was so numbed by the memories that he didn't realise he was nodding. His head felt too heavy for his neck to hold up by itself, even with Symby in the tendons. It wasn't saying anything to him. Did it know?

Did it know he still missed her?

"I think it's really sweet."

Felicia had done it again, yanking him back to cold reality from his colder thoughts. As if the tightness around his neck was a noose, and she had pulled on it until he was dragged back into the open.

But if she was the reality checker here, why did she tell him such an obvious lie?

"That's just a polite way of saying it's really fucking weird," he huffed, though he didn't blame her for it. At least she'd _tried_ to be polite about it.

"No, it's not," she argued. "I mean it. Not a lot of people can be that close with their own species, let alone with an alien in their body."

...She had a point. But that didn't mean she couldn't have been lying, too. Just a little bit. It was one thing to tolerate what he and Symby had, but without actually feeling it for yourself it wasn't feasible for _any_one to-

"_**She's telling the truth, Eddie." **_Symby pulled his attention to Felicia again, as it was so fond of doing, and he finally noticed that Felicia's hand was placed over his blackened one, white claws reaching under his palm. He hadn't even felt it but now that he saw it, he was intimately aware of how the claws scraped across Symby's surface. Not that the symbiote even minded. Maybe that was why it never called attention to it.

"Symby's lucky to have you," Felicia said, gently squeezing the black.

"_**Yes, I am."**_ Symby squeezed back, both her and him. Symby, his symbiote. His Other. His wife in all but body and name. A black tendril hovered under his cheek, just on the edge of his vision so he didn't need to look away from Felicia, inviting him to lean into it.

"...I'm lucky to have her," Eddie whispered, and he let the tendril hold his face just as it held Felicia's hand, and the rest of him.

Felicia's hold tightened, but it was pulling away as she leaned over the roof.

"That's our guy down there," she said quietly, pressing herself low and prompting Eddie to do the same as he followed her gaze. Behind one of the more modest Wall Street buildings, two figures bulged out of its shadow. The only way to see them would have been from Eddie and Felicia's own vantage point, though one of them cast a shine off of their bulbous head that anyone looking close enough would have caught.

"You sure it's him?"

Felicia scoffed. "Unless you know anyone else dumb enough to wear a giant pool ball on their head, I'm pretty sure it's him." She motioned for him to stay low as she crept along the edge of the roof, until she reached a point where she could start climbing down to ground level. There wasn't anywhere high up closer to the scene that wouldn't have them skylined, so they'd have to approach from the ground.

"What's his power, even?" Eddie asked as he followed her against the backs of buildings, dipping in and out of the darkness that was broken up by alleyways leading out into the streets. "How do you look at something like _pool_ and think you can make a supervillain career out of it?"

"God knows," Felicia answered. "This guy was another one who got the look off of someone else. Whatever it is he does with it, he brought in enough for the weekly take and that's all I cared about. Wonder who else is with him…" They were just a few hundred feet away now, and if they peeked out from behind a brick wall they could see them both orchestrating some sort of backdoor heist. It wasn't distraction since they were being too careful about it, so the money must have been important… for what?

"Ugh. Shocker." Felicia pulled back from the edge of their hiding spot with a scowl. "Hate that guy. He's had it out for me for months just cause I 'kidnapped' one of his buddies. And he's got a weird thing for cats. Think that's why he worked for me in the first place."

Eddie confirmed the sight by reaching out Symby's eyes to see around the corner. The quilted yellow sleeved were unmistakable even in darkness. "Did you have some kind of 'obnoxious gimmicks only' hiring policy?" he asked.

"You'd think so, huh? But the good thing about gimmick villains is that they're predictable." Felicia grinned mischievously, though Eddie didn't return it. The villains were talking over the scrape of something heavy being dragged across the ground.

"I didn't have a problem with the guy, y'know." 8-Ball's voice was distinctive from the slight echo his helmet gave it. "And I don't know why the other boss wanted him gone, but between me or him? I'd rather it was him. Simple logic."

Shocker made a sound of agreement. "If the guy couldn't dodge a pool cue through the chest, then I say he deserved to die."

"Right? Far as I'm concerned, I'm just enforcing Darwinism. That ain't against the law."

8-Ball was bragging about killing Norton. Eddie was right, and for once he hated it. He braced himself to become Venom, letting the symbiote flow around his neck in anticipation.

"We're going in-"

"Wait, Eddie." Felicia pressed against his chest, digging her claws slightly into the slime, holding him back as she tilted her head to see around the wall again. "I wanna try something different this time."

Eddie scowled down at her, as the symbiote crept impatient tendrils up his neck. "This _is_ different, Felicia," he hissed. "This 8-Ball guy is a killer. He already has a bodycount, and we have a duty to deal with him right fucking now."

"I understand how you feel, Eddie. But if he's already in Hood's gang, we need to use him to see what's going on in there. Which means one of us needs to get his trust." She made it clear that she'd nominated herself as 'one of us', which was perfectly okay for Eddie. He still scowled as he lay flat against the wall, listening to the murderer huffing from unseen effort.

"If we see him after tonight," he said, "he's dead."

Felicia nodded. "Fine by me."

"What did you have in mind?"

"Just watch." Felicia winked and, somehow, pulled herself up the wall, digging her claws and the sharp heels of her boots into the bricks. Her hair tumbled after her like a white ghost as Eddie watched her ascent from the ground in utter puzzlement. She wasn't going to try and climb all the way up to the roof… was she? No, she stopped a third of the way up, and then started pulling herself sideways across the wall, towards where it turned the corner into the alleyway ahead.

An ambush, then. Once Eddie stopped worrying that she was gonna fall if he looked away, he did his part and had Symby reach eyes around to watch the villains.

Shocker was busy scratching at his head, while 8-Ball struggled to pull another black bag through the back door he'd propped open with a cue. "So, remind me again. Is this job for our 'boss', or for the _other _'boss'?"

8-Ball slumped, likely both from exertion of heavy lifting and because of having to explain something yet again. "As far as we're concerned right now, there's only one boss. And he's the one who can kill us and then bring us back just to kill us again."

"Wait… he can really do that?"

"Yep. Haven't you seen any familiar faces from the obituaries around the bar?"

"I don't like reading them… too depressing."

"I think they're funny. Yesterday I found that jumper Dragonclaw accidentally caught last week. Saved from the pavement, but died of shock from seeing Claw's face. Fucking hilarious." 8-Ball's laughter had the effect of echoing around his helmet, and it took all of Symby's effort to stop Eddie from leaping out and strangling the very last sounds out of him. Symby, and the knowledge that Felicia would see it.

"Jeesh, of all the people to be saved by…" Shocker shrugged as Eddie tried to control himself. "I guess it's just bad luck."

"Seems to be a lot of that going around." Finally, Felicia seized the moment and leapt down with a flip off the wall. Shocker jumped back in… well, shock, instantly dropping the bag he'd just tried to help with. 8-Ball flinched, but with his face so effectively hidden he quickly found his composure again.

"Back off, Cat! We earned this!" He didn't seem to have any weapons on hand, but he spoke as if he had a gun pointed right at her. Shocker nodded frantically as he readied his gauntlets, only just remembering he had them.

Though Felicia's back was turned to Eddie, he could tell she was finding it all very amusing. The slouch of her shoulders, the way she bent one knee and let the toe of her boot tap against the ground just before she kicked it against one of the bags in their haul. Shocker flinched again, and 8-Ball tensed in a rising fury. Eddie couldn't help but smile at how expertly she wound them up.

"I'm not arguing against that," she said. "But that's far too much money for just you two to spend all by yourselves, isn't it?"

8-Ball cocked his head, even though his helmet looked like it would have sent him careening to the ground at the slightest tip of balance. "What've you heard…?"

"I've heard you're now working for the competition. Is that true?"

Something Eddie didn't recognise had crept into her voice, lay there, and then sprouted claws. Even though he had no face, 8-Ball seemed very very nervous. At least, that's what Symby could taste in the air.

"Look… Cat, we got nothing against you-"

"I do!" Shocker argued, not lowering his gauntlets. "She kidnapped Diamondhead!"

"Yeah, yeah, we all done things we shouldn't have." 8-Ball literally waved off Shocker's protests. "But after the Five Families thing, we thought you were done. We had to find someone else to-"

Felicia held up a hand, the claws on them standing upright like tiny knives. "You don't have to explain yourselves to me, boys. I'm not here to try and steal you away from whoever's keeping you busy. In fact, I want in on it."

"R...Really?" Both men seemed to ask it at once, as Felicia shrugged in response.

"Not much point in being a thief if you don't have anyone to sell to, y'know."

"I thought you retired from all that," 8-Ball said, now cocking his head the other way.

"That was back when I had a reason to retire. But now I gotta build up my pension fund all over again."

Shocker had managed to convince himself that she wasn't about to tear their throats out, as he tentatively came forward.

"I smell bullshit," he growled behind the mask. "Besides, we shouldn't even be talking to her."

Eddie tensed as Venom engulfed him, ready to jump in if Felicia's gambit really did end up falling apart as it was right now. But, despite how likely it seemed to be, she barely stuttered.

"Alright, you got me," she confessed. "What I _really_ want to do… is open a cat sanctuary."

Venom almost ruined the whole plan, just as he managed to stifle a snort of laughter. Even if either of the men heard, Shocker looked a little too dumbfounded to have done anything about it.

"Wait… really?"

"My name _is _Black Cat, isn't it? Not like I picked the name out of a hat at random. So, please, won't you help a poor animal lover realise her dream by introducing her to your new boss?" She clasped her hands together, and Venom could only imagine what her pleading face must have looked like. Any animosity on Shocker's part seemed to have completely dissolved, and 8-Ball was more confused than anything else. Torn between the potential reward of trusting his former boss and the risk of ratting out his new one. Long seconds passed before he made his decision.

"He's… kinda picky about who he works with."

"And he's busy," Shocker added.

"Busy with what?" Felicia asked, facing her fellow cat-lover.

"Well, there's that big gathering he's holding with the other-"

"Shut up, Schultz!" 8-Ball cut Shocker off with a hard elbow in the gut, but it was too late.

"What gathering?" Eddie could almost see Felicia's eyes sparkling

"That's not important," 8-Ball spluttered. "Look, there's… a bar, in Hell's Kitchen. Called Javelynn's. That's where we meet him most nights. Door password is 'lucky strike'. Can't promise you'll even get to see him, but if you really need to then it's your best chance. Consider this a favor, Cat."

Felicia nodded. "Noted, and appreciated. Have a fun night, boys." She wiggled her claws in farewell as she took a more direct route away from the crime scene.

"Can I come see the cats when the place is open?" Shocker asked.

"Course you can, Schultz," she called back. "I'll even name one after you."

Despite all her confidence and bravado, she didn't hide a sigh of relief when she was out of their sight, flat against the wall with Venom by her side. She hadn't even expected it to work, and she'd pulled it off anyway. Venom just kept finding more and more reasons to admire her.

"Guess I gotta go find a cat and name it 'Dumbass' now," she muttered, walking as quickly as she could without stumbling.

"Can we kill him now?" Venom asked, still lingering near where the murderer remained.

Felicia sighed again as she shook her head. "If Hood finds out that one of his thugs was murdered after telling someone else where to find him, that's our one in with him gone. Just be patient."

Venom growled, but left the scene behind to follow after her

"Fine," he said.

'_Just for you,' _he didn't say.


	17. Night 14

Eddie hadn't asked at first why Felicia had them meeting up before nightfall, let alone why they were starting in Harlem and not Hell's Kitchen, but she was ready for quite a few questions to come as he climbed up to her. Why she was wearing a jacket over her suit when it was barely much colder than what they were used to, why she'd wanted him to come to her, maybe asking again why she hadn't just let him kill 8-Ball last night when she so wanted to… thankfully for her, he just settled on the most obvious.  
"Little bit early for you to be out, isn't it?" He'd made the journey over as Venom, but he pulled the symbiote back as he approached her. Felicia had been sitting on the edge of her roof, her favourite place to hang her legs as she watched the city pass by under her boots, but she stood now to stretch her limbs.  
"Thought it'd be nice to get some daylight for once," she answered. "And there's something I wanna do around here before it gets too dark."  
She watched one of his eyebrows arch. "What would that be?"  
"You'll see." She dropped off the roof, carrying herself to the next closest one with her grappling hook, and though he must have hesitated at first Venom eventually followed behind her. It wasn't far to where she wanted to go, just four buildings until they'd reached the end of the roofs. The only one left in sight was that of the church in the graveyard across the street they now stood above.  
"Bit of a morbid place to stop by," Eddie said, but Felicia shushed him as she scanned through the trees that rose up amongst the gravestones. She'd seen what she was looking for earlier that day, but she'd been at ground-level. Maybe it was more appropriate anyway that they'd have to be a little closer to see it.  
"Looks like we'll need to go down." She'd brought the jacket just in case, to hide the most obvious parts of her suit and to cover her white hair with the hood.  
"You mean… actually walk on the pavement instead of a rooftop? Like normal people?" Though it ruined her solemn mood, Felicia couldn't help but laugh at Eddie's thick sarcasm.  
"I know, right? Next we'll be crossing the street at stoplights instead of flying right over them." She pulled her hood up, stuffing her hair behind her ears, and contemplated pulling her gloves off before deciding she felt safer having claws on hand.  
"And what exactly are we hoping to find down there?" Eddie asked as Symby moulded the black around him into clothing, leaving him similarly covered with a jacket of his own.  
"I told you," Felicia said, "you'll see." That was all she was going to say until he'd seen it for himself, and though he frowned he didn't ask anything more as they climbed down to the street, emerging from a narrow space between two buildings. Though the sun was only just starting to disappear, the street was thankfully vacant as they crossed it into the graveyard. Felicia hugged her jacket close around her, willing the white fur to stay under the collar, and Eddie seemed to hunch over so his size didn't make him so noticeable. Even with hardly anyone else around, they were both anxious about drawing any attention. At least Felicia knew she was there for a good reason-  
And then she found it, standing there through the trees. Even if she didn't know what grave it was, she recognised the person standing in front of it. Only dimly, only from seeing it once a few years ago, but she knew instantly who it was.  
Even Eddie seemed to have an inkling of what she'd seen, maybe from how suddenly she stopped or from Symby telling him whatever it could feel from her.  
"...That's Norton's grave, isn't it?" he asked, quietly, a deathly whisper as if he was worried about disturbing any of the ghosts that still lingered.

Felicia nodded, keeping her eyes on the scene as she drifted to the bench on her left. "Buried just this morning. The girl is his sister. I met her once, a long time ago." It was after a heist. Only a small job, more like practice to Felicia. Norton had needed to pay rent, on top of all the debt he'd stacked up from trying to find other ways to pay it. Felicia followed him home to split the take, and his sister had been waiting for him at the door. The look on her face told Felicia that it hadn't been the first time she'd seen him stealing, but it would be the last if he refused to stop.  
Felicia didn't know what happened that night, having left Norton to deal with it himself, but it was the last time she'd worked with him. Maybe he had stopped, for a while. Maybe he'd found a way to pay for keeping his life without having to risk it. Whatever the answer, it hadn't lasted. Across the distance, she could tell the sister was crying.  
"She his only family?" Eddie asked, sitting next to Felicia on the bench. She could feel the wood boughing under his weight, though she hadn't heard it creak.  
"Only family that would think to show up, at least."  
"So other than her, all he's got is a thief and the guy who almost killed him over fake guns."  
Felicia couldn't tell if Eddie pitied or scorned him for having so little to show at the end of his life.  
"More than what some people have," she said. "Especially people in our line of work."  
He didn't have a rebuttal for that- not right away, at least.  
"...But maybe if he had a little more than that, he wouldn't have gotten into it in the first place."  
"Maybe. Is that why you're beating yourself up over him?"  
"I am not -" He cut himself off just as his voice started to rise. "I… just thought I'd made a difference back then. Holding back from hurting him when it seemed like it was impossible to do. I thought maybe Venom had finally scared someone straight, or at least that I'd have something to show for all my… for our anger." The black of his jacket seemed to squirm at being acknowledged. "Y'know, it feels like I've been trying to teach myself over and over that not every bad person is bad enough that they should die… and then life comes along and fuckin' kills them anyway." He sighed between his hands, burying his face in them like a corpse in the dirt. Felicia let him have the moment before she said anything.  
"Life kills them all. It's unfair, it sucks, and it makes me want to kick whoever's in charge in the celestial balls. But at least we can say we're better than it." If only because they had some say in who died, in who deserved to die. She thought back to Peter, to the countless times he preached of sparing even the most heartless villain. Even Venom, even her, in both of their darkest days. If not for his insufferable moral code, the two of them might not even have been sitting together to debate whether or not it was worth trying to follow.  
"Maybe." Eddie was hunched, a hand pressed to his forehead. "But if I'd been around that night, if I'd just been close enough help-"  
"Stop it, Eddie." Felicia took hold of his other hand, the one hanging limp over his knee. "Don't you dare blame yourself for this. You weren't there because you didn't know, because you couldn't have known that he was gonna get killed. You might as well blame everyone else whose hobby is swinging around at night for not saving him too. Hell, he was my friend. You might as well blame me for it."  
Maybe he did blame her, or at least he blamed Peter on top of every other reason he had to hate him. But when he finally met her eyes, he didn't look angry. He didn't even look sad.  
He just looked tired. So, so tired.  
"Life kills them, Eddie," she told him, squeezing his palm with her claws again. "Not you. Not Venom."  
_**"Not anymore… not unless they deserve it."**_ Symby whispered at the edge of her consciousness, and she could feel it bubbling under Eddie's skin as he looked away again. He didn't seem to have the strength left to keep his eyes up.  
"Why d'you bring us here?" he asked. Felicia had thought it was obvious why, though she didn't blame him for thinking there was something else going on. That maybe she was torturing him on purpose. She looked over at Norton's grave again. The sister was gone, replaced by flowers at the foot of the stone.  
"Because… after all these years, he's still my friend," she said. "And I figured… since you wanted to go after 8-Ball so badly for offing him, you maybe wanted to-"  
"Yeah… yeah, I get it." Eddie reached the answer himself faster than she could get it out, and she was grateful for it. He seemed grateful too, from the tiny smile that flitted across his lips like a ghost. How fitting.  
"Thanks, Felicia," the ghost said.  
She nodded, tugging on his hand as she stood up. Along the street outside the graveyard, lamps were flickering to life to ward off the night that was coming in close. "C'mon. I think we've both earned a drink."  
Eddie let her pull him up, even though he was almost twice her size. "And I bet you have just the place in mind, huh?"

**xx**

Javelynn's turned out to be right on the edge of Hell's Kitchen, just a street away from where the roads gave way to the wilds of Central Park. Felicia had passed by it a few times before, but it was one of those places that you never really noticed unless you were actually looking for it. Squashed between a hardware store and a boarded-up shell of a building, it did all it could to not be seen. Much like the Bar With No Name, only this place at least had a sign (even if it was so faded beneath grime that you'd need mutant eyes to see the letters). She suspected the clientele would be identical, too, especially from the look of the guy watching the door. From size alone he could have matched height with Eddie, maybe even Venom.  
"So what's the plan?" Eddie seemed aware that he may have met his match, from how he peeked behind the street corner to keep an eye on the bouncer.  
"Get in, find out as much as we can, then get the hell out." Felicia had ducked behind the wall to make herself look presentable, which or more less involved smoothing down the fur around her chest and making sure it covered just enough cleavage. Now when Eddie looked back over at her, he found it hard to look away again (at least, until she flicked her eyes up at just the right moment and made him swivel his head sharply to avoid being caught).  
"You sure going in looking so… conspicuous is a good idea?" He cleared his throat as he asked, and she almost felt bad for torturing him.  
"Black Cat is the one that gets people talking. So yes, it is. You'll have it easier though, since most people don't know who Venom is under the symbiote."  
"Wait, really? Who the hell do they think it is?!"  
She shrugged as she folded up her jacket, then went digging in one of the pockets just as she remembered what was in it. "They just assume the suit will go to anyone who can feed it. Some even think you're dead."  
Eddie blinked. "I… don't know how I feel about that."  
Now knowing how out of the loop he really was, Felicia definitely felt bad for teasing him. "Figure it out later. For now, at least it means you can walk right in and no one will know who you are. Even better if you're wearing this." She held out the patch she'd pulled from her pocket as she stuffed the jacket somewhere she could retrieve it later. Eddie took it from her with an arched eyebrow.  
"What is it?"  
"Part of standard uniform for the Black Stream merc group. They've supplied Hood with weapons in the past, so one of them won't be out of place here."  
Eddie still seemed skeptical, but he let Symby glue the emblem to the sleeve of his shirt. "Where'd you get your claws on this?"  
"I made it." She let the pride shine through in her smile. "Got some rough arm measurements from when I was holding onto yours."  
Eddie blinked again, and now he looked at the patch with a much more appraising eye. "We learn something new about you every day."  
"I like to keep boys guessing. It's what keeps me so interesting." Felicia patted her hair once more, pulling back strands from her face with her claws before she was finally ready to emerge. "I'll do the talking. You and Symby just stay behind me and look scary."  
"So only what we do best. Got it."  
Felicia didn't doubt that he'd play the part perfectly, but even so she couldn't help glancing back at him as she swished towards the entrance. Only for a second, just to see if he really would stay quiet. His hard frown looked like it had been welded shut, and that was good enough for her. Whether it would be good enough for the thug standing between them and door was yet to be seen.  
"Black Cat?" He spoke like she was supposed to know who he was, but after so long dealing with them the meatheads more or less blended together into a single faceless entity. When she didn't acknowledge him with anything more than a tap of her claws on her hips, he grunted. "Didn't know you were invited."  
She shrugged, exaggerating the move so her fur would fluff up around her shoulders. "Not officially. But I've heard I can get a lucky strike around here."  
The thug narrowed his eyes, and chucked his chin to his shadow standing behind her. "He with you too?"  
"My bodyguard. He's just here to make sure no one touches the goods without paying for them."  
There was some more glaring from the bouncer; not at her, and whatever was on Eddie's face was making all the scars on his jaw knit together in a scowl. Despite that, he stepped aside. "Just don't cause any trouble. Both of you."  
Felicia put on a smile as she passed by, and she heard Eddie shove his way through behind her before the thug could change his mind. He really was a perfect fit for the bodyguard lie.  
Inside Javelynn's, which was packed wall-to-wall with patrons that must have been melting in their costumes, more than a few heads turned her way. She'd been expecting it, but even so she had to remind herself not to acknowledge any of them. Just to sweep her eyes enough to see who was there, but not to focus on anyone in particular. She didn't want to give anyone ideas about trying to start a new gang with her (not that that's ever stopped the most desperate of them…). Thankfully, once she made a point of ignoring them they too quickly forgot her. Though having Eddie towering behind her might have helped a little with that. Shocker looked like he was planning to interrogate her about her 'cat sanctuary' business plan, but one look at her 'bodyguard' put him right back down on his ass. She turned to look up at him as she lead the way through the crowd, and saw that his eyes kept darting left and right as sweat started to shine on his forehead.  
"You okay, Eddie?" she whispered, hearing him gulp as his pupils flitted around his eyes like flies.  
"Just… feeling a little claustrophobic." Either it was the amount of people around getting to him, or the fact that they were all potential killers standing close enough that they could both smell the misery and booze coming off them. Felicia felt uneasy herself, even if they weren't all staring anymore.  
"We'll get a corner booth," she told him. Luckily the crowd thinned out substantially closer to the walls, with most people clustering around the bar, and Eddie's size wasn't so noticeable as he slumped down into the booth with her.  
"Just try and relax, Eddie." Felicia folded her arms under her chest as she lay them flat on the table, pulling her hair over one shoulder as she turned her face to watch the crowd. She could feel Eddie's shaking the table as his leg twitched up and down.  
"A little hard to do when I think Venom's almost eaten half the people in here," he muttered, shielding a hand over his face if he was worried about being recognised at any second. Someone did approach, but it was only a waitress (funnily enough, she was dressed the most normally out of anyone else in the bar) cropping off two beer bottles at the table. Eddie furrowed his eyebrows, looking at the bottles and then Felicia in suspicion.  
"Another reason for the merc patch," she said as she took the one nearest to her. "Free drinks at most disreputable establishments."  
Eddie looked at the remaining bottle, then the patch on his shoulder, then made a face of pleasant surprise as he snapped the cap off. "I take it back. I can relax now."  
Felicia smiled around the top of her bottle. The taste wasn't great, but that was to be expected. She was just happy that Eddie was happy for once. "Good. You do that, and I'll see if Hood decides to make an appearance tonight." That, and she wanted to see the affairs of everyone else she had to share New York's backstreets with. Even though the place was packed, she'd long since learned how to focus on just one group out of hundreds and tune out most of everything else around them. For now she settled on some familiar faces sitting at the edge of the bar.  
"See the main problem is, you don't have powers," one of them was saying to the man beside him. "For me, 'Speed Demon' was obvious-"  
"I thought you were called 'Wizzer' at first."  
Though he had his mask on, Speed Demon was clearly glaring. "Do you want my help or not?"  
"Okay, okay, I'm listening."  
"Basically you got two options; either come up with a name first and make yourself fit it, or get your hands on something dangerous and name yourself after it. You've already got the tools, that… gas tube stuff, and the name I suggested fits it perfectly!"  
"I dunno, man… 'The Exterminator' is kinda on the nose, ain't it?"  
"That's the point of it! Ain't you noticed what New York's biggest problem is? Too many fuckin' bugs! There's spiders, there's ants, wasps, beetles-"  
"I heard that!" A young lady in purple and green reached across the bartop to try and swat at Speed Demon, but the wings on her back didn't help her inebriated flailing. Not that Demon made any attempt to get away.  
"Yeah, I know, Janice , you were supposed to!"  
"What'd I tell you about saying my name like that?!"  
"Ooooh, what'cha gonna do? Is Daddy Tombstone gonna throw me in the harbour again?"  
"No, but I fucking will!" Beetle's green wings suddenly snapped together and propelled her right into Speed Demon, sending them both flying back to sprawl on the floor in a tangle of drunken limbs. The line their flying had carved through the crowd was quickly filled in again, and hardly anyone even looked at the two of them fighting together. The only one who gave them any notice, another familiar face to Felicia, just sighed as he downed his drink and creased his nose under the boomerang on his face. Whether or not he had ever realised who had stolen the fabled Doctor Doom painting from him, he didn't seem to notice her in her corner as he stood up.  
"Every single night. Every single fuckin' night with these two." Boomerang slammed down the empty bottle and called out to the other side of the bar. "Shocker! Make some room, I'm coming over."  
From his table, Shocker stood up to protest. "You stay the hell away from us, Fred! Every time you're in a group of four other people, you end up ruining it! And you don't even know how to play poker!"  
"Aw, Herman, don't tell me you're still mad about that 'locking you in a trunk and shoving you in the river' thing! I said I was sorry!"  
"What about burying me alive, huh? You ever apologise for that?!"  
"Hey, that was a group effort! You wanna try and get an apology out of those two over there while they're at each others throats, be my-!"  
"Hey-" Eddie interrupted her villain-watching with a tap on her shoulder. "Is there a limit to this 'free drinks' thing?" The beer bottle sat empty at his elbow, and it seemed to have stopped him shaking at least.  
"Not that I know of," she said. She remembered someone first came up with the idea cause they hoped the rowdiest mercs would drink themselves under the table before they could start any fights, so it made sense they could have as many as they wanted (though, she wasn't fond of the idea of having to drag Eddie back out by the end of the night…).  
Just before she was about to go back to her recon, she looked at the pair of villains still fighting (now against the wall), the crowd still pointedly ignoring them, and got an idea that she was sure Symby was going to love.  
"Eddie, put your arm around my shoulders."  
"Huh?" He'd just acquired a second bottle and was in the middle of raising it to his mouth.  
"People don't like staring at couples," she explained, pulling his free arm around her and edging closer to him. "Just look at how they're ignoring Beetle and Speed Demon over there."  
Eddie looked at where she nodded to, while she let her head hover close over his chest, resisting the temptation to actually put it down.  
"...They're supposed to be a couple?" he asked.  
"Apparently." His arm felt heavy on top of her, but it was… actually quite comforting. She could feel the thick muscles along it tensing around her, as if instinctively pulling her closer.  
"They're trying to strangle each other," he pointed out.  
Her head ended up hitting his chest, and just as she feared she didn't want to pull away. She could feel his heart, or his blood, or maybe just Symby, pulsing away under his skin. Had he always been this warm before…?  
"Might help if you pull me onto your lap, too," she suggested, both innocently and not at all innocently.  
He raised an eyebrow down at her, but to her surprise (pleasant surprise?) he actually did space his legs out and tug her over by her waist. She did them both a favour by lying against him on her side, so only her hip was pressed against him, though he still grunted softly from her weight.  
"You want me to kiss you while I'm at it?" he asked.  
Felicia froze, wondering what Symby had told him even though it promised not to, but then she realised he was joking. Maybe just trying to catch her off-guard like she'd done so many times before. All she could do was try to one-up him and reclaim her crown.  
"Hm. Maybe later." She let him think whatever he wanted about that as she watched the bar from over his chest, feeling at once both invisible and invincible with him holding her. Suddenly she realised why Symby was so attached to him.  
"Yo, Mary." Someone she didn't recognise marched up to one of the closer tables where Typhoid Mary sat. "Which one of you got picked for the hit?"  
"Ha fuckin' ha." She swatted the guy across the jaw. "Though thanks for reminding me, I still gotta pick up a dress for it..."  
"See the Tinkerer. He'll make something that can either hide a shitton of weapons, or which is a shitton of weapons. Only issue is he doesn't open til Monday."  
"Guess I'll pay him a visit when he's open, then."  
"Who knows," said another woman stopping by her table to sneer, "he might make you three for free."  
"Fuck off, Moonstone." Mary threw a cloud of something in her face, and at first Felicia thought it was fire until she saw the peanuts from the bar counter hitting the floor.  
"You bitch! You know I'm allergic!" Moonstone shrieked while trying to shield her face with one hand and punching towards Mary with the other. This time the fight that broke out attracted enough attention that those closest were taking bets on who would win. One man was going around gathering up everyone's money as they waved it around-  
One man with a head flat enough to land a cartel plane on, stuffed full of mafia secrets and a bullet that had only kept him dead for a few hours. He was the one man other than Shrike and Scorpion that she'd given any kind of trust over her business… and when she wasn't there to stop him getting killed, he went to work for the man who brought him back.  
Hammerhead wasn't The Hood, but he was likely as close to him as Felicia was going to get.  
Eddie must have felt her stiffen, though he couldn't see who she was staring at. "You look like you've seen a ghost," he said. "And not cause of all the white for once."  
"I just did. Stay here." She released his arm from around her, but he pulled her back just before she was free.  
"Hey, wait." He held out a hand, letting a thick puddle of black pool in his palm. As the symbiote left him, his skin seemed to warp. "Take Symby with you."  
Felicia arched an eyebrow, surprised by too many things at once. "You're actually wearing clothes tonight?" She thought he'd be more likely to answer that than reveal why he was trusting her with what was essentially his alien spouse.  
"I'm… breaking the habit," he said with a shrug. "And in a place like this, we're not letting you out of our sight."  
Felicia looked down at the symbiote being offered to her. She couldn't help flashbacks to when Lee Price had forced one onto her… but this was different. Symby was twitching, pulling over itself like a little tidal wave, impatient to join her but not making any move until she was ready.  
"...If you insist. And if Symby's okay with it." Felicia held out her own hand, and watched as the symbiote seemed to crawl from Eddie's palm to rest on her glove. She wasn't sure what to expect- would it seep through her skin and swim through her blood, or tie itself around her spine and bulge in her bones? That's what the worst of Maniac had felt like- but Symby only pulled itself up her glove to spread across the sleeve of her suit. Rather than going inside her, it only rested over her suit. She didn't even see it amongst the black, or feel it as she tentatively flexed her arm. She didn't know how much Symby really covered her, but it seemed enough that she wouldn't need to worry about bullets that didn't come near her head.  
"You sure you'll be okay without more free drinks?" she asked Eddie, since he wouldn't have Symby to hold the Black Stream patch in place anymore.  
"I've got something else to keep me occupied." He was looking toward the front of the bar, where another familiar face among dozens had just arrived.  
"Hey, 8-Ball!" Shocker called. "Didn't think you'd show tonight. It's your turn to deal the cards."  
As 8-Ball went for the table, the rejected Boomerang made his objection known. "Ohhhh, I see how it is, the Boomerang guy is a little too goofy to count in but the Pool Ball guy? Watch out for him, he means business!"  
Eddie looked like he meant business too. Though she couldn't see his face, she could tell he was scowling from the tense set of his jaw.  
"I don't know if it's so smart leaving him by himself," Felicia muttered as she left him to whatever revenge he was planning. Symby made itself known around her shoulder, squeezing it in an attempt at reassurance.  
_**"He'll be fine."**_  
"It's not him I'm worried about…"  
_**"You'll be fine, too. I'll make sure of it."**_ This time she did feel at least a little reassured. If anyone tried shooting at her, blowing Eddie's cover would be the least of her problems anyway. But Hammerhead didn't look armed as he kept himself to himself, watching the fight still going on from a safe distance near the back of the bar. In fact, he didn't even seem to notice her. Maybe that was intentional, him hoping that so long as he didn't acknowledge her then she'd just pass over him.  
"You've moved up in the world, Hammerhead."  
He didn't look surprised by her appearance, so her assumption was proven correct. "Cat. Didn't think ya' survived that Five Families mess."  
"Haven't you heard? Cats usually get nine lives. I haven't been keeping track but I'd say I have a few more left to waste."  
Hammerhead only flared his nostrils in response. "What're you doin' here?"  
"Just making sure my former employees are being treated right."  
"Some might say it's more like you're scopin' out the competition."  
"Then they'd be greatly misinformed, cause I'm not in the business anymore."  
"That so?"  
"You said it yourself. Five Families sent me right back to square one. I just don't see the point in starting over."  
"You'll forgive me if I ain't exactly buyin' that."  
Even if it wasn't entirely a lie, of course he wouldn't believe it. It's why she'd trusted him in the better days. "I wanna talk to your new boss."  
He seemed to raise his eyebrows. With his forehead being so small, the dent from the bullet still carved into the bone, it was hard to tell. "About what?"  
It was a clipped response, but a lot better than the outright denial she was expecting. "About what I've heard. Things I don't think he knows about but that he'd very much like to."  
"In return for what?"  
"I haven't decided yet."  
Hammerhead scowled, and it made his features crowd around his face like a vice was crushing them together. He looked away, but only for a few moments before he leaned in to give her a hushed warning. "I don't know what you're really up to, Cat, and I don't really wanna know. But I'll tell ya' this, cause I ain't bout'a forget everythin' you done for me. The Hood… ain't someone you want to get mixed up with. For your own sake, and mine, I'd leave while ya' still got lives to count on."  
Felicia tensed, but not because she was scared. Symby was just preparing her for the worst. "And how many do you have left, Hammer?" she asked. "Must be a lot more than most people if you're really standing here…"  
Now it was his turn to go tense, crossing his heavy arms across his chest. "I already told you 'bout that."  
"You told me he brought you back to life. So he owns you now… am I right?"  
He was no longer facing her, or even watching the fight that was finally winding down. When he spoke, it was a grunt through gritted teeth. "He's lookin' this way."  
Felicia tried to follow Hammerhead's evasive glare, but he only seemed to be staring at a wall. "He's here?"  
"Just cause you don't see him doesn't mean he ain't around."  
As she looked at the wall he was facing, a shiver passed through her. As if someone was watching her through the brick. Symby seemed to sense it even more intensely, and the shiver lingered on her through it.  
Felicia frowned. The one thing she hated more than brainiacs; the magic users. Or whatever the hell it was that Hood used to cheat his way up the criminal ladder. She forced back another shudder as she shook her head. "Then maybe you can tell him that I want to speak to him. Now."  
"He don't speak with anyone who ain't with him."  
"And how does someone 'get' with him?"  
Hammerhead didn't turn his head, but he did flick his eyes down at her this time. "You really are persistent, ain'tcha?"  
"It's what made me such a good boss."  
He grunted again, maybe to agree or to hide the fact that he was agreeing. Then he went silent aside from the sound of his teeth grinding together, and Felicia didn't move. The sound got louder before it finally ceased, with Hammerhead realising she wasn't just going to go away.  
"Look, I can't tell ya' about his operations, or who else is workin' for him. Though, I bet ya' already know enough since ya' ended up here. But I can tell ya there's this… event on, in a few days. Big fancy thing. Lots of money to grab. Hood's usin' it as a way to test out the new blood."  
Felicia didn't hide how excited she was at the news. "Where about?"  
"Even if I knew, I couldn't tell ya'."  
So she'd have to find out herself. "Lots of security?"  
He nodded tersely, still looking off into that indecipherable distance.  
"How is he planning to get inside?"  
"That's on the new ones. They get us fake invitations, we get in, ransack the place. Easy money."  
"It'd be even easier if you counted me in."  
He shook his flat head. "Short notice, Cat. No time to get ya' an invitation. Even if we could, there's no way Hood'd trust you on the team. You're too good at stealin' all by yourself."  
"Usually," she admitted proudly. "But some jobs are too big even for me." Even as she said it, she knew she was trying to claw her way through a dead end. Hammerhead had given her all he was willing to give, or however much The Hood was letting him give. She'd have to change tactics.  
"What if I find my own way in?" she asked. "Unless Red Riding Hood is scared the Big Bad Cat'll make everyone else look bad?"  
Hammerhead turned his head, but he wasn't looking at her. Not at first. It was as if someone else was speaking in his ear, demanding his attention before he could give it to anyone else. When it passed, he seemed to shudder just as she and Symby had.  
"You wanna try and get in, be our guest. If you impress him, he'll consider getting back to you. But if you get in the way, he'll kill you. And unlike me, he won't bring ya' back."  
"Is that a 'no'?" she asked.  
"All he said to me was 'good luck'."  
There was a shout of victory from the middle of the bar. A group carried Moonstone to the door, her face swollen not just from her allergy kicking in, while Typhoid Mary stood on a table to bask in her glory. Felicia left Hammerhead to distribute the bet money to the winners.  
"Good luck to him too," she muttered, making her way back to Eddie- only to find that their table was empty.  
"Where's Eddie?" She directed the question over her shoulder, watching Symby swirl its eyes up at her.  
_**"Outside…"**_ It pointed a thin tendril towards a steel door hidden away from the rest of the room. Felicia stood to the side of it, just as Eddie pushed it open from the other side. He looked left and right, only slightly surprised to see her.  
"What were you doing out there?" she asked, as he gently closed the door so it didn't make any noise behind him.  
"We didn't need 8-Ball for anything else, did we?" He sounded out of breath, and she noticed he was rubbing his knuckles with something black. Something that looked very similar to what 8-Ball always wore.  
"No," she answered, only now noticing the dark stains splattered over his black shirt stretched over his heaving chest, so dark that she only noticed them because she was so close to him.  
"Good. Don't go back there. It's not pretty." He didn't sound very proud of himself, and he went back to their table to down his last bottle in one gulp.  
"That your good deed for the week done?" she asked him, while Symby clenched around her in uncertainty.  
"Something like that. Just wanted to make sure he could apologise to Norton personally." He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and steadied himself with the table, while conveniently also hiding her from any prying eyes. "Who were you talking to?"  
"Old acquaintance. He couldn't tell me much. Only that something is happening soon."  
"Something? You mean like that gathering Shocker mentioned?"  
"No, this is different. This is more like a party they're gonna try and rob from. Sounded to me like it's happening some time after the weekend."  
"So we just need to find out what kind of parties are going on next week that are big enough to attract that kind of attention."  
"Or we could find out from someone who's going to it."  
"You know anyone like that?"  
Felicia looked behind Eddie to where Typhoid Mary had turned her table into some sort of throne for the evening. "I'm pretty sure I do."  
"Who?" Eddie twisted around to see where she was looking, but Felicia was already walking past him.  
"You'll see on Monday." She clapped his shoulder, keeping contact long enough for Symby to return to him."I hate it when you say that. But whatever. Let's get the hell out of here."  
"Scared the body out back will be found before you can steal any more beer?"  
"No, I just saw White Rabbit walk in."  
"Oh, God. Yeah, let's go."  
Somehow they managed to make it back out alive, and somehow the fact that Eddie had just killed a man with his hands didn't put her off wanting them to hold her again. Maybe Symby had left some of itself behind in her.


	18. Night 15

"I had an idea at Javelynn's."

For once, Eddie hadn't said much as they waited for Typhoid Mary to make an appearance at the Tinkerer's current workshop. Hearing him speak after such a long moment of silence almost made Felicia cough up the gulp of coffee she'd just taken.

"Did it come before or after you pocketed 8-Ball?" she asked, dabbing at her mouth with the back of her hand.

"First of all, that was terrible wordplay and you should be ashamed of yourself."

"Don't worry, I am." She was sure she was more ashamed of taking out her easy target than he was of taking out his.

"Secondly… it was before he showed up. You weren't the only one eyeing up everyone else in there."

Felicia nodded. It was good to hear that he hadn't noticed how comfortable she'd made herself in his lap… or maybe he just didn't want to bring it up yet.

"You see anything interesting?" she asked, cocking her head even as she remembered how nicely it rested on top of his chest.

"Interesting, definitely… but I also realised something. " He sat with his back to a chimney, one knee brought up to his chest while the other leg lay crooked on the surface of the roof. "I actually didn't know a lot of the criminals in there last night, other than Shocker and the other obvious ones." He admitted it as if he was a little surprised to hear himself saying it. Considering how long it had been since he was classed as a supervillain, she wasn't surprised at all.

"And those that I _did_ recognise from being Venom," he went on. "I didn't know their powers or their weaknesses or… even their names."

Felicia had a fairly good knowledge of who was worth knowing in the underground, but that was because she'd had to be on the lookout for new recruits. Usually the ones no one knew about were only too eager to read out their entire supervillain LinkedIn profile as soon as they met someone else in tights.

"You never fought them?"

"No." Eddie had his own coffee, and he took slow sips from it as if he was nursing a headache (she didn't completely buy what he'd said last night about not being able to get drunk). "When I was… when _we_ were sick, we had to end things quickly before we… did something we'd regret. Most of the time we'd have to leave them when I could feel Symby… losing itself. And some of them… hell, if I saw them walking around, I probably wouldn't know if they were good or bad until they started shooting at me… then again, seems like _everyone_ starts shooting when they see the teeth come out... actually, scratch that, I've got _no_ way of knowing which costume is bad news straight away."

Felicia knew herself that it got a lot more complicated knowing who to trust if you weren't on any obvious side. She nodded along in sympathy.

"Bit of an occupational hazard, isn't it?" she said. "As it is, I just get suspicious of _anyone _wearing a suit as tight as mine's."

Eddie went silent again, aside from the gulp of coffee going down his throat. She wondered if Symby filtered anything out from it. Did it enjoy caffeine like it enjoyed chocolate? Or did it put up with whatever Eddie put in their shared body, just to keep him happy?

If so, they were even more like a married couple than Felicia first thought. But she couldn't sense anything like discontent in Eddie's direction. After so many nights she'd learned how to tune into the symbiote's side, through their 'bond' or 'entanglement' or whatever it was that had her spending so much time with so many Venom hosts. And having the symbiote cover her, without having to fight against it, only seemed to make her even more aware of its presence, its existence both within and without Eddie. A lot of the time it simply left itself wide open, as if daring her to do the same.

...Or maybe it didn't hide itself because it _couldn't_\- not from Eddie, and not from her. Other than that one moment, when Felicia saw the woman that Symby refused to name…

She hadn't seen her again since then. So she stopped thinking about it, before Symby went and did something to make her stop, just as Eddie found his voice again.

"That night was the only time I've ever been certain that everyone else around me was 'bad' in some way." He spoke slowly, as if he'd carefully planned each word before they left his mouth, as if he was mentally writing them down first. "Some better than others. Some worse. But, even then, nothing on the level of Electro, or Rhino, or Osborn on a bad day or… me on a _really _bad day. Hell, the only one in there that I knew for a fact had killed someone who didn't really deserve it… well, I dealt with him. But the rest of them? I've got no idea where they rank on the scale of 'purse snatcher' to 'mass murderer for fun'. And if I don't know that, how the hell is Venom supposed to deal with them properly?"

Felicia let herself drink before trying to answer his question with another question. "You're not gonna go down the Punisher route and try and get rid of all of them, are you?"  
He scoffed as his face creased in disgust. "No, hell no. I worked with Punisher once, when I was Anti-Venom. He was an asshole. And I'm not just saying that cause he tried to kill me…" He counted up the tally on his fingers. "Three times."

It was ten times less than she was expecting. Hell, she was surprised to hear he'd survived even those three. Sure, he was Venom, but this was _the Punisher_. He was somewhere fairly high on her 'do not fuck with under any circumstances' list (it was a pretty long list). She allowed herself a shudder at the thought, before trying to steer away from the certified psycho with a villain vendetta.

"So what _was_ your big idea, then?"

Eddie stared blankly at first, as if he'd completely forgotten it. But when he remembered, his eyes lit up like stars, like Symby's white was spreading over them. "I was just thinking… you only really see those guys- the obscure crooks, I mean- in the news after they've been caught. And even then, the story is all about the crime, and whoever it was who caught them. Hardly anyone asks the villains themselves anything about it. It's like what I asked you before, _why _do they do it when nine out of ten times they're just gonna get their asses kicked? What makes them tick? _We've_ got our own reasons for it. I wanna know what everyone else's reasons are. And… if I'm right about who's better and who's worse." He shrugged at that last point, giving a rushed mumble around the lid of the coffee lid as if he was embarrassed by it. Somehow, the fact that he was so huge that his shadow almost overtook that of the chimney behind him only made the scene even more cute.

...Eddie Brock. Cute. Did someone spike her coffee when she wasn't looking? She took the lid off and peered inside to see if there were any neurotoxins lurking in the milk.

"So… what're you thinking of?" she asked, once she'd confirmed she wasn't drugged (and was not relieved by it). "Some kind of big villain registry disguised as an advice column for supervillains?"

He shrugged. "More like… I dunno. The Globe used to have this section near the back for all the neighbourhood stories. Y'know, the fluff pieces. Maybe… something like that for the small-time villains in another paper. Give them some spotlight they won't get anywhere else. Maybe even make people a little more aware of them so they don't get kidnapped so often, or mugged, or whatever."

Basically, to make his job a little easier for himself. That was the gist of what Felicia heard.

"So you'd get the crooks' stories with the lure of publicity, get people reading them cause no one else is talking about any of them, with the noble goal of figuring out which ones are the most dangerous _and _teaching everyone who the hell to stay away from."

"Yes! Exactly!" Eddie snapped his fingers, like she'd just given him his pitch on a silver platter. "Like how the Bugle used to do superhero features- what was it called.. 'the Pulse' or something. Anyway, there's no reason why you can't do the same with supervillains."

"The 'heroes' might give you more than a few," she pointed out, which earned a scoff from him.

"Well, if the '_heroes'_ did their jobs properly, maybe there wouldn't _be _such a costume epidemic for someone to write about."

"I like when they're bad at their jobs. Lets me run free." In a way she supposed Eddie counted among the rest of them, since he hadn't tried to haul her down to a police station just yet.

"Yeah, but you're good at not getting caught," he said. "Some of these guys should get thrown in a cell just so they can't get themselves killed. I actually feel bad for them, y'know. The ones who aren't insane, I mean."

She knew exactly what he meant. Those were the ones she'd taken advantage of the most when she had her empire. "Even though you don't know for sure who's insane and who's just had a shitty life," she said back.

"But I _do _want to know. Some of them, maybe… maybe they just need to get their voice out there. Maybe they just want to be heard, and crime is the only way they know of to get people to listen. I used to meet a lot of people like that."

"Used to?"

"...Before Venom." His enthuthiasm sputtered out as he trailed off, and he tipped back his head to drain the last of his coffee before he spoke again. "But, not much point in thinking about any of it right now. Not like it'll ever happen."

Felicia cocked her head, letting her hair tumble down over her shoulder. "How come? You're the reporter here. You'd be the perfect guy for the job."

"I already tried to do it. Well, something like it." He looked away. "Last week, I... I tried to convince my boss that maybe we didn't need to write about Venom like he was still a villain."

"You mean, like _you _were still a villain."

"Yeah, pretty egotistical, huh? Asking for permission to talk about how much of a great guy I really am?"

Felicia shrugged, indulging in a sip from her cup before it got too cold "I'd say you do a good job holding back. If I had the chance, I'd just put myself all over the front page."

Eddie faced her again, with a look like he was struggling to process what she'd just said. "...You read my stories?" He sounded surprised, still looked it when Felicia nodded.

"Now that I know what you write under," she said. "Real original, by the way."

Eddie, or as she knew him, 'Sym', looked away again as he rubbed at the back of his neck. "

"It was Symby's idea."

"Of course it was. Anyway." She repositioned herself, crossing her legs underneath her. "I like how you write about you. Perfect blend of 'unstoppable monster' and 'misunderstood vigilante'."

"You're just saying that so I'll do another feature about you."

She rolled her eyes. "I don't need to fake praise for that. I just need to be me."

Eddie knew that as well as she did, but still he had to smile at her confidence. He passed his empty cup up to a tendril coming out of his shoulder, and as he did he seemed to study the black tips of his fingers as he went through whatever thoughts were in his head.

"...You really think I could do it?" he eventually asked, and his uncertainty actually surprised Felicia. That, and the fact that he valued her faith in him.

"Eddie, I think you're the _only _person who could do it," she told him. "Just don't threaten to eat anyone you interview, no matter how dumb their costume is."

"What if they don't like what they read and threaten to send a bomb to me or something?"

"That's why you'd have a complaint box."

He let out a laugh, a subdued sound mostly from his nose. "It'd be interesting seeing what they all have to say, at least. How they ended up where they are. Just… having someone asking the questions I wish someone had asked _me_ when I…" He trailed off again like before, but the enthusiasm was still lurking there. He'd maybe found a way to help people, good and bad, without having to punch anyone, and it was the first time she'd ever heard him excited. Hopeful. Whereas any progress made towards uncovering Osborn's plan and whatever the hell was going on with The Hood was regarded by him with careful, _very _careful optimism, this was him when he actually thought he could do something that would make a difference.

Felicia had dated a superhero and a war hero, but the man sitting beside her was perhaps the most noble man she'd ever met.

"Tell you what," she said. "If you ever manage to get it off the ground, I'll give you your first interview. If you want."

Eddie's eyebrows shot up, and he nodded once. "I'll hold you to that."

"And I'll be expecting something on level with your Cat vs Tarantula magnum opus."

"Of course. Nothing less than best for you."

He knew her so well. Felicia hid her grin behind her cup as she downed the last of the coffee. "But, before you go running off after a Pulitzer, first we have a pyrokinetic to ambush."

Eddie nodded, making a face like he was just remembering something. Maybe some other observation from his life to sweep her off her feet, some rare moment of vulnerability perfectly designed to make her fall in love with him once and for all.

"Remind us again," he said. "Red hair? Sometimes got half a face of white?"

"That's the one."

"Cause we saw a red-head go in, like, fifteen minutes ago."

Never mind, he was a dumbass.

"Wha-? Seriously? You saw her and you never said anything?"

"I thought _you _were watching for her! This is your idea, after all!"

"I was out getting the coffee!"

"Well…" He rubbed the back of his neck again, and she was starting to think it was some kind of nervous twitch. "Maybe we didn't want it to go to waste with you jumping in there as soon as you got back."

Felicia sighed heavily, even though she'd have likely done the exact same thing in his position. "Thanks for your consideration. But now we have to switch to the other side of the building and wait til she comes back out." She pulled herself up to her feet, only to sit right back down at the other end of the roof, now overlooking a small and empty parking lot.

"I still don't really understand what you're gonna try and do down there, anyway." Eddie knelt next to her, keeping his eyes on the lot below as if to make up for before.

"I told you," Felicia said, "there are three parts to Mary. There's normal Mary-"

"Uh huh…"

"And then there's Typhoid Mary, and Bloody Mary. Three different people, all in the same body." That's what she'd heard from those she'd asked, others who'd survived working with her before she'd hired her.

"That I understand," Eddie said. "Kinda. What I don't get is how any of those three are gonna help us."

"She's a good wild-card to have on hand, and I bet the Hood knows it. So whatever he's going to try and pull tomorrow and wherever it is, he'll be bringing her along. And since it's a stealth heist at a fancy party, she'll need to blend in. Hence, she needs a dress."

"And of course she comes to your favourite tailor for one." Eddie looked down at the unassuming storefront they sat above. The Tinkerer liked to keep his business incognito.

"When she comes out," Felicia continued, "I can try and gauge what mood she's in and take it from there. Hopefully she'll just be Mary today, since she has to be out in public."

Eddie cocked an eyebrow. "Hopefully?"

"In the brief time I knew her, she didn't have much say over which part of her was in control. She'd switch to whichever one was most useful, or sometimes just at random. I saw Typhoid the most often, but Bloody _did_ come out one time- oh." Felicia interrupted herself when she saw someone leaving through Tinkerer's back door, red hair streaming behind her and a nylon dress cover tucked under her shoulder.

"Well, that took a lot less time than I was prepared for." Felicia was disappointed and relieved, both at the same time.

"Just when I was gonna start on the stakeout snacks, too-" There was the sound of foil-coated plastic crinkling just before Eddie cut himself off. "Symby, did you eat this whole bag?!"

"_**You never said I couldn't." **_Its guilty gurgle sounded very similar to a burp. Felicia shushed them both as she tried to figure out which Mary was down there. Her hair, face, clothes, they all looked normal… unless it was just an act put on by one of the dangerous ones. Either way, Felicia had to get something out of her.

"Looks like she's in a good mood, so this shouldn't take long." She stood up, taking care to make sure she wouldn't be seen against the sky.

"You need any help?" Eddie asked through a mouthful of chips.

"No. Both Typhoid and Mary know me, but each one knows me a little differently. It's hard to explain, but you'll see."

"I still hate it when you say that..."

Felicia jumped down, only making a sound with her heels as they hit the ground. She'd landed a bit behind Mary, so as not to startle her. Even if she was in a good mood now, there was no telling what could cause a switch to someone a lot more dangerous. If that happened, Felicia would just have to try and be even _more _dangerous than her.

"Mary! It's so good to see you!" She called out to catch her attention, still keeping her distance but holding her arms open in as friendly a greeting as she could manage. Mary blinked at her, cocked her head, as if she didn't know her at all.

"It's me, Felicia. Remember? We met last year. With Hawkeye?" It was more than a risk. It was a blind gamble where she had no idea what she was betting on or what was deciding the odds.

If this Mary _did_ remember her, there was no guarantee she'd trust her. Hell, for all Felicia knew, she might have just thrown a switch over to Typhoid- or worse...

Mary was blinking a lot, squinting, as if only seeing Felicia through a blurry window. Trying to piece together who she was, what she remembered of her, from the scattered pieces of herself. If she grabbed the wrong memory, if she flailed in panic and latched onto whichever ones she could find first, the entire act would shatter.

But if all the right pieces fell into all the right places, if Felicia was lucky enough…

Mary blinked one last time, and light beamed down on her from her eyes. "Felicia! It's been so long! How are you?"

Felicia had to gulp to hide a sigh of relief. "Well, a lot's changed, but I'm still standing. But how about you? I heard you've been invited to a very important party, am I right? Same one I'm going to?" No wasting time skirting around what she wanted. The longer she had to speak to Mary for, the more likely a change might happen before she got anything out of her.

Luckily, this naive mirror of the ruthless killer she'd enlisted didn't seem to suspect a thing.

"You've... heard right." She sounded bashful, going as far as to rub nervously at one of her arms (_this _was the woman who almost suffocated Moonstone over a bad joke?). "I didn't think a place like Alchemax would fit that kind of venue, but apparently they've turned the whole front hall into a ballroom for it."

Felicia tried to contain her feeling of triumph- seconds! It took literally _seconds _for Mary to spill where the party was! God, she felt like a genius- as she nodded like she already knew all of that. "Alchemax, huh? So it's being held at the tower?"

"Of course, where else would it be?"

"Just wanted to make sure. Between you and me, I lost my invitation."

Mary let out a sympathetic coo at Felicia's fake frown. "How're you gonna get in, then?"

"I'll figure something out. Maybe swipe one off of a guy while he's ogling my tits." That's how she first learned how easy it was to steal things in a low-cut suit, at least. Mary blushed, though only one of her cheeks went red.

"Well, there's been a few men lining up to go with me," she said, "but… honestly, so many guys just aren't worth the trouble. Most of them don't even know how to kiss! No subtlety, no tenderness, no…" Mary started blinking again, looking up at the raindrops that were starting to fall from the sky. Felicia felt them too, heavy and cold as they hit her head, and in seconds those few drops had heralded a downpour. Mary didn't make a sound. She just stared up at the clouds as the rain drenched her, washing away the makeup covering one side of her face to reveal bone-white skin underneath.

"No... thrill of the chase… chasing in the rain…" Her words were almost devoured by the sound of rain slamming into the ground, and she down at her palms as the water ran between her fingers, and then started to evaporate into steam.

"Like… Daredevil kissed me…" Her voice was cracking. The steam was growing. The switch was flipping, and Felicia had noticed it just a little too late.

"Oh, shit." She backed away, heels splashing in puddles, planning to scramble back up to the roof along a drainpipe, but someone blocked her way.

"**Cat, what's happening?" **Venom was standing in front of the only pipe she could see, looking at her and then Mary as fire started to grow between the latter's fingers-

"Eddie, don't-!" Felicia didn't have any specific warning in mind when she shouted at him, but all the wind was knocked out of her as Venom pulled her behind him, hunching over to shield her against his chest. She couldn't see anything more than black, but she could feel the heat of the firestorm Typhoid Mary was unleashing, all of it right against Venom's back, feel Venom's chest tensing tight against her, feel the symbiote trying to squirm away and hear it shrieking in pain. It only lasted for seconds, but each one was agony for both Eddie and Symby. Yet neither of them flinched. Neither of them let her go until the fire stopped, its heat still lingering amidst the thick clouds of steam thrown up by the hammering rain. Felicia knelt in those clouds, trying not to breathe in what she was sure was smouldering flesh and hair, as Typhoid Mary stood before her in burned clothes.

"You... you're the bitch that left me to fuckin' die during that brainwashing bullshit!" Sparks flew from her fists as she clenched them, the white side of her face making the other look all the more redder from rage.

Venom still held her close, heaving as drool and rain mingled down his jaw, and he glanced down at her with an engorged eye. "**Brainwashing?"**

"Long story," she groaned, pulling herself up off the ground with a firm grip on his shoulder. "I'll tell you later." She could barely see through the rain and steam, couldn't think over knowing how close she came to being cooked.

"And you!" Typhoid Mary cocked her head, as if to better listen to the sound of sizzling all around her, and stabbed out a charred finger. "Venom, huh? Never thought I'd meet someone worth sharing a kill with." When she grinned it was like her face was literally cracking in half, the skin yanked back over her skull. "Tell me, what's your favourite limb to cut off? I like going for the legs… it's fun watching them try and crawl away."

"**You must be fun at parties." **Venom hissed as he stayed hunched over, the rain at least soothing the burns across his back as Mary walked slowly through the steam that shrouded her, moving in for the kill as she tore open the bag in her hand.

"I _will _be at the one I'm going to," she cackled. "And how convenient! I get to try out my new dress before-!" Just as she pulled whatever weapon she'd just acquired from its cover, the back door flew open. Unfortunately for Mary, because she'd been so dramatic in unveiling her dress, she didn't see it until it smacked her so hard that she went flying backwards across the parking lot. The steel in the door seemed to glow from her impact as the small man holding it open squinted all around, goggles secured above a nose to rival the Vulture's.

"What on Earth is going on out here?!" Tinkerer had to yell over the thunder of the rain that he avoided within the shelter of the doorway. He seemed to focus on Felicia and Venom, since they were the only ones still standing. Felicia looked around the ajar door, but Mary only twitched once as the steam finally started to die down. Can't start any fires with your mind if the mind isn't conscious.

"Hey, Tink," she greeted with a familiar wave. The inventor adjusted his goggles as he peered at her with a frown.

"Ms Hardy. Don't suppose you or your friend are here for a new suit?"

"No, this one still fits just fine." She patted down her drenched fur. "I wanted to get some information out of your customer, but she ended up being very uncooperative." She jerked a thumb in Mary's direction, while she was still gratefully down for the count.

"Well, lucky for you she's already paid me," Tinkerer grumbled. "Whatever it is that you're disagreeing over, could you be so kind as to move it _anywhere _else before police show up? I don't feel like having to move shop for a second time this month…"

"Don't worry, Tinker. We're done with her. You go back to your toys."

Tinkerer huffed, adjusted his goggles again, and disappeared back into the darkness of his workshop.

Venom snarled to himself as he straightened, only now covering his back as he glared at Mary's comatose body.

"**What the hell was that about?!"**

"The rain must have set her off somehow." Felicia could only grit her teeth as she sighed, shaking her head as rain continued to soak her hair into a mess all around her. "And it's gonna set _me _off unless we get out of it." She pulled the white strands away from her face, and as she did she noticed a shadow falling over her. She looked up, and found a symbiote umbrella hanging above, keeping anymore rain off of her.

"Our apartment is much closer than yours," Eddie said, his head uncovered now since the symbiote was casting itself over the both of them, thin teeth lining the edge of the pitch-black umbrella. Even so, he was too large to fit all the way underneath it. He was sacrificing cover for himself to give it to her instead, on top of having already taken the brunt of a fireball for her.

Did he know how… romantic he was being? Or was he only blushing because he'd just had his spine charred? Felicia shook her head again, letting the cold water cover for her as she tried to think of reasons not to love him.

"I'll let you lead the way, then," she said.

But as they made their way over, him shielding her from the rain the whole while, she couldn't think of a single one.


	19. Night 15 Part 2

"Haven't seen it rain this bad in months," Eddie called out from behind Felicia, as she stood squeezing water out of her hair over the sink in his bathroom. Even with him making an umbrella for her, the rain she'd been exposed to was enough to make her water-logged all over. When her hair was merely damp rather than soaked, she still had to try and comb the tangles out with her clawed gloves. If she was at her own apartment she would have just used it as an excuse for a long, warm shower… but she wasn't. She was at Eddie's, for the third time that month. The first time she had broken in, wondering how someone as feared, as renowned as Venom could live like this (never mind how someone as big as him could even fit in such a small room). She'd wondered the same about herself in her own tiny- well, tiny by her standards- apartment, how the illustrious Black Cat could bear having barely more than a few hundred square feet to prowl about in. If she still had most of her stolen prizes, she wouldn't even have room to display them. Hell, so long ago she'd even wondered how Peter, the 'Amazing' Spider-Man, could tolerate the pathetic living arrangements he'd brought her home to.

It seemed like the more you expected someone to be living the high life, the lower that life turned out to be. Still, at least Eddie seemed to try and make the most of his life outside of his home. The only luxuries he had on show were all the exercise equipment that must have seen daily use and the TV that had made her pity him first and foremost.

And boxes. Lots and lots of boxes, as if he'd only just moved in last week. But she'd been here last week, and they hadn't budged since then. She could only guess at what was inside them all stacked on top of each other, leaning against the walls and littering the floor. Stuff that he didn't immediately need. Maybe stuff that he never _would _need but for some reason couldn't bare to get rid of. She could have peeked inside any of them when she first let herself in, but she'd resisted her common temptation. Not like he had anything she wanted to steal, other than his time.

Then again, what else was he going to use it for? Other than keeping his muscles trained, at least. Though, with all the fighting and running they'd both been doing almost every night, his had only seemed to get stronger…

She'd felt them at Javelynn's. She'd felt them less than an hour ago, wrapped tight around her, shielding her from a blaze that she'd brought upon them both. And locked behind those solid muscles, she'd felt his heart hammering away at his ribs, like it was a convict trying to break free of its cell.

A lot like her own, sometimes. Mostly around him nowadays. Felicia looked at him in the mirror, focusing more on him than her hair now. He wasn't facing her, too busy looking out his window, but she still felt like was being watched. Even though he'd let her in, she still felt like she was trespassing. Like she was somewhere that she wasn't supposed to be. She'd felt exactly that a thousand times before, of course, all over the world, but this was the first time that it had ever bothered her.

Maybe it wasn't about trespassing. Maybe it was more like she didn't belong _anywhere_ with someone like him. As for why she felt like she was being watched… she thought she saw a patch on his shirt that was whiter than the rest of it. It seemed to blink at her, reading her reflection the mirror just as she read Eddie's. Trying to judge what she'd do next just as she was deciding herself.

Symby really was a nosy little shit. Then again, with what it was, how could it not be? And with what Felicia was…

She sighed, finally giving up on trying to tame her hair and peeling off her mask. The rain had loosened the adhesive so much that all she had to do was pluck it from her face. Usually the skin it covered ended up looking a lot paler than the rest of her face, at least until blood circulation started to reach the cells again, but the downpour had left her white and chilled all over. She was achingly aware of how much heavier her suit was, weighed down with water that was squeezed out with every movement she made to slick the bare skin underneath. She was just grateful that her fur collar was removable, and it weighed a bloated ton on its own as she tried to wring it out. The only downside was that without it to cover her neckline… well, the zipper didn't go up as far as she would have liked. If she had the choice she'd have just taken the whole thing off but… again, not her own apartment.

"You'd think I'd have a suit made of something a little more waterproof than leather by now…" Felicia said it mostly to scold her past self's lack of foresight as she left the bathroom behind her, uncomfortably squishing in the damp leather and tapping her heels across the wooden floor to sit on the windowsill, to watch and curse the pounding rain outside. Eddie's reflection in the window was masked by the mist of condensation, his features blurred by the droplets dragging down the glass just as her own were. She ended up peeling a glove off and using her finger to trace through the misty glass, putting a smiley face over hers and almost managing to match it just before she heard Eddie speak.

"You can wear this instead, if you want. Should be big enough to… cover everything."

He sounded nervous, and she didn't see why until she turned her head towards him. He was holding something out to her while keeping his eyes averted. It was the shirt he'd just been wearing, spared from the downpour thanks to Symby covering him. She'd thought that it _was _Symby, at least from seeing its eyes on his chest, but he must have really meant what he said about breaking the habit.

"Oh. Thanks." As she took it from him, Symby bubbled up over his bare chest to cover it in black. She was a little disappointed, but she'd have to go back to the bathroom to change anyway. Somehow the back of it wasn't completely burned through (Symby must have been able to hold on long enough to protect it), and it definitely felt more comfortable than the soaked leather she was trapped in.

"Only other shirt I have still... has blood on it," Eddie said from behind the door, answering a question that for some reason she hadn't thought to ask. She wriggled out of her suit, peeling her boots and other glove off until she was down to her underwear. Then she pulled the shirt over her head, praying that it really was long enough to-

Oh, it was warm. It was so, _so_ warm. But that wasn't the only reason she found herself burying into it. There was… was it a musk? Maybe that was too strong a word. But there was _something_ clinging to the fabric, seeped into the warmth. She could smell it all around her, and it wasn't just smoke from the fire attack. She'd smelled it before, stray whiffs from when she pulled herself closer than usual to Eddie. Not Venom, maybe because the symbiote usually covered up his pores. No, it was all from Eddie.

It was him, and she liked it.

"You can look now," she said as she emerged from the bathroom, finding him with his back turned as if to not accidentally peek. But he was right; his torso was so much longer than hers that the hem of the shirt reached her knees. He seemed relieved when he saw that for himself. Relieved… and a little shocked. At least, that's what Felicia guessed what his eyes were so wide from.

"Is there anywhere I can…?" She held up her dripping suit, which looked more like the sad skin of a dead animal now than the wearable engineering wonder she knew it as.

Eddie looked at her for a few more seconds, not even seeing what she was holding until something shook his gaze and jolted it away from her.

"I'll put it near the radiator for you," he said, taking it from her only to almost drop it as soon as she let go.

"You okay?" she asked, trying not to laugh from how much effort he had to put into lifting it up.

"It's… heavier than it looks," he grunted, folding it in his arms to make it a little easier to carry.

"That'll be all the microservos in the lining," Felicia guessed, letting him prove something to himself as he hefted it over the radiator and treating herself to a seat on his chair.  
"That's not a real word," he said. "Whatever you just said, that is not a real thing."  
"It is so. That's what Tinkerer told me they were called, at least."

"Bullshit. He told you that so you'd pay more for it. You should march right back there and ask for a refund."

"Oh, I see, you wear an alien that can turn into literally any clothing you want, and that makes you an expert on villain fashion?"  
"Exactly." The symbiote over his chest squirmed as if in agreement, while she rolled her eyes. "Speaking of which, I've been meaning to ask you about something."

"Is it about the brainwashing thing?"

His eyebrows shot up for a second before plummeting back down. "It… wasn't, but now that you've brought it up you have to tell me about it."

Just what she'd been dreading. She sighed as she pulled her knees up. "Okay, okay, I… might have kidnapped actual Avenger Hawkeye and had him programmed as a sleeper agent to be used against other superheroes. Didn't last very long, though." She really did have a thing for making things a lot more complicated than they needed to be, especially back then. Probably just her need to show off shining through in everything she ever did.

Eddie blinked at her, as if trying to tell if she was joking or not. Eventually, he believed that she wasn't.

"...I think I prefer it when you just steal things," he said as he sat heavily on the edge of his bed. Not the reaction she'd been scared of. Then again, she supposed Venom didn't have an established method for dealing with brainwashers.

"You seriously never heard of that happening?" she asked, almost a little slighted that her convoluted efforts had gone unreported.

"No! When was this?!"

"Like… four years ago?"

"I was with the FBI then, I should'a heard about that!"

"Hence why I'm surprised you never did. Then again, I guess it was more of a S.H.I.E.L.D. thing… and Deadpool was there, for some reason."

"Who?"  
"Never mind. What were you _really _going to ask?"

Eddie opened his mouth only to close it again a second later. Whatever he was about to say had to be rephrased, perfected, before he would let it out. So he took his time before he spoke.

"What's up with the white hair?"

It was probably the most innocent question she'd ever been asked in her career. Which made her instantly suspicious.

"Matches the rest of my colour scheme," she said with a shrug, subconsciously pulling some of the damp white behind her ear.

"Dyeing's kind of a lot of work just for an aesthetic, though."

"It would be, but I don't dye it."

"So _that_'s why your eyebrows are white, too. I know I already asked this but, seriously, just how old are you?"

Maybe Symby just got its nosiness from its host. Felicia scoffed as she gathered up her hair over one shoulder, the best she could do with it without something to tie it back. "If you must know, the colour started going when I turned 18," she said, remembering the day she'd found the first white strand amongst the blonde that normally wouldn't have been noticeable at all. But she'd made a habit of examining herself closely in the mirror during that year of her life. Almost an hour every day. Watching herself change, watching her roots bleach themselves to bone from… from whatever it was inside her that let her survive that year. Maybe it was the same thing that turned half of Mary's face white. The price they paid for surviving their own personal hells.

Felicia didn't know what happened to Mary, but it wouldn't have surprised her if it was the same as what had happened to her. Maybe even worse than that, if it split her mind into three.

As if anything _could _be worse.

"And that's… a long story I'd rather not go into." She felt her voice crack, but there was little she could do to hide it. Little that Eddie could do to try and fix it as well, and he seemed to be very aware of that even as he was fighting back inevitable curiosity.

"Okay," he conceded. "I didn't mean to pry. Just… curious."

"It's fine." She shook her head, sending small drops of water flying out from her hair as she blinked away the ones gathering at the corners of her eyes. "How's your back?"

"We've felt worse." Eddie reached over his shoulder to rub at it, rolling his arm in the socket as he stood up to watch the window again. With his back facing her, Felicia could see that the symbiote's surface was pulling back and forth across it like a gentle tide as it healed whatever burns it had passed onto his skin (yet somehow through the fabric of his shirt… maybe it could repair clothes as well as flesh).

"She said the party was at Alchemax, right?" he asked, crossing his arms over his chest just as Felicia did the same.

"Should've known it'd all lead back to them somehow," she said. After all, Alchemax was just Oscorp under a different coat of paint. Peel it away, and it was sure to still be all green underneath.

Eddie nodded with a frown, as if pissed he didn't see it for himself earlier. "I can ask Allan tomorrow for last minute invitations for whatever they've got on."

He sounded so confident for a man who was surely not very high on the CEO's friend list. "You think she'll give them to you?"

"She wants to know what the hell Osborn is up to just as much as we do. I can tell her that we've figured out he might be planning something at the party, and we need to be there to handle anything that happens."

"She must put a lot of faith in you."

"Faith. Desperation. I can't really tell them apart anymore." He leaned against the wall, just next to where it turned from brick to glass. "But, as much as she doesn't like to admit it, I think she sees Venom as an asset. Ever since we brought back her pet dinosaur."

Felicia could feel her eyebrows almost launching off her face as they shot up. "Dinosaur...?"

"Long story, surprisingly only half of it Alchemax's fault. There's a whole city of them living in the sewers." He shrugged as if it was common knowledge she was just supposed to accept.

Then again, it was hardly the weirdest thing she'd heard about going on in New York. If he hadn't explained, she'd have just assumed they were imported over from the Savage Land.

"Ah, so that's why you like going down there," she joked, though Eddie didn't take the bait. Maybe because she didn't make it nearly convincing enough as she usually would have.

"I just hope all this rain doesn't end up flooding them out," he said in concern, staring again beyond the window, through the screen of water that drenched the whole city.

"How long d'you think it'll take to ease off?" Felicia asked.

"Could be another ten minutes. Could be a few hours."

From the sound of it slamming against the glass, as if trying to break in like she hadn't, the latter seemed most likely. "Any ideas of what to do until then?"

Eddie exhaled as he thought, tapping his foot on the floor almost in time with the rain. "Could order pizza. Make some poor underpaid teenager suffer outside like we have."

It was better than anything she could come up with, and the thought of warm food made her pull the shirt-dress tighter around her in anticipation. "You got money?" she asked.

"Do _you_?"

"Of course." She pushed herself up, going towards where her suit hung drying near the radiator. "Bottomless suit, remember?" She went into one of the many pockets only she could find, and pulled out her emergency wallet. Eddie actually looked surprised, though pleasantly so.

"Guess we'll go halves on it, then." A tendril from his shoulder deposited his phone into his hand, but as he took it he narrowed his eyes in thought, as if one had just hit him.

"...You ever actually seen RoboCop?" he asked as Felicia curled back up in her seat.

"Not all of it," she answered, and he got the look of someone who'd just been given a mission.

"Right, first we're ordering pizza. Then we're watching it." He set to digging through one of the boxes across the room as Felicia stared at him.

"Seriously?" She had to laugh at how quickly he seized the opportunity to try and convert her.

"Felicia, you are in my apartment- and for once, you haven't broken in, so you're a guest." Eddie emerged from the box victorious, holding aloft the DVD he'd fished out. "And guests in my apartment respect the authority of RoboCop." He grinned, knowing he was in total control of the evening, and seeing that gorgeous fucking smile made her intimately aware of three very immediate, very alarming truths.

She was in his apartment. She was wearing his shirt. And she really was falling in love with him. Not just loving him. _In _love. Like she was a fucking teenager!

God… God, why was she so predictable? Not only was she falling for a dork, again, he was one who could easily bench press her. Never mind that he was the third one to have a symbiote.

...Symby must have had a point. There was _something_ going on with her and men in alien costumes. Was Eddie the logical end result of it, or just another symptom of her problem?

Of all the times she needed to talk to Symby by itself, and there was no way to get Eddie out of the room without it.

"Alright, how about this," Felicia offered, squashing down any and all school-girl crush blushes. "I'll watch your grotesquely violent action movie, but _I_ choose where we get pizza from."

Eddie considered it for a moment, then nodded.

"Ms Hardy, you have yourself a deal." He handed his phone over to her, and either didn't or couldn't feel how her fingers trembled lightly against his.

**xx**

After close to two hours of pizza, debating while they waited for it to arrive over which Avenger could take which Defender in a fight and how they'd all lose to Venom, and watching violence and justice being dispensed amongst the streets of Detroit, Felicia had to admit that she'd been wrong. Not about being in love, no, that had only been cemented for her when she listened to Eddie

boast about how he could easily kick the Asgardian ass of the literal God of Thunder.

"Well, Eddie, you've convinced me." She stretched out in her seat, still feeling bloated from cheesy slices of mushroom and pepperoni. "RoboCop could totally defeat all of the Avengers _and _the Fantas-" She looked over at him seated on his bed, only to find him lying toppled over on his side. The sounds of the movie had covered up his gentle snores, and she'd been so invested an hour in that she hadn't even noticed he'd gone silent.

"Eddie?" She spoke softly just to make sure that he was asleep, while drool (not as much as Venom could make, thankfully) dribbled onto his pillow.

"_**He's dreaming." **_

Felicia looked up from his face to see another looking back at her over his shoulder. Symby seemed to cover him in a black, shimmering blanket as it rose up and down from his steady breathing. The very tip of his tongue poked out from behind his teeth, as if he was so used to Venom's tongue flailing about that he sometimes couldn't keep his own hidden.

If she didn't already know she was in love, that would have easily convinced her.

"I hope it's about something nice," she whispered sincerely, rising slowly so as not to make too much noise. The silence made her realise that the rain has finally stopped its assault on the city, though there was no telling when it would start again. Her hair was as dry as it was going to get, and her suit felt like it wouldn't give her hypothermia if she squeezed herself into it. Not like she had much choice to wear anything else if she wanted to get home.

"_**He doesn't get much sleep,"**_ Symby told her, still floating over its host. "_**But he let himself this time… he feels safe around you."**_

Felicia paused at hearing that, in the middle of shedding his shirt.

"...Not many people do," she confessed, pulling her cover over her head and feeling far more comfortable standing in his room in her underwear than she ought to have felt. She didn't even mind as Symby watched her suit up, yanking the leather passed her waist and remembering to grab her mask from the bathroom. Then she remembered something else, when she saw Eddie's phone sitting on one of the boxes she passed by on her way to the window. She folded up his shirt next to it, then climbed onto the windowsill (careful to avoid disturbing Eddie with it being so close to his bed).

"I put my number in his phone," she told Symby. "Tell him to text me when he's got the invites. And… tell him thanks, for letting me stay." It wasn't nearly as much as she wanted to say to him, and Symby seemed to know it as it stared at her with one boot on the edge of the window.

"_**Thank you too, Felicia."**_

She cocked her head. "For what?"

It hesitated, looking down at the beautiful dork it had made its home in, before giving her as reasonable an answer as she could expect from it. "_**Eddie will tell you better than I can."**_

Maybe it meant thanks for splitting the pizza. Despite her uncertainty Felicia nodded anyway, one second away from leaping out into the humid night before something else pulled her back. She looked at Symby again, who looked at her so curiously as it guarded its host, then she leaned down to press a gentle kiss on its head.

"Good night, Symby."

She swore it blushed just before she pulled back, and she felt tingles on her lips all the way home.

It wasn't exactly like kissing Eddie himself, but it was good enough. Maybe Symby would pass it on for her.


	20. Eddie's Dream

"Haven't seen it rain this bad in months." Eddie pressed his forehead against the window, the cool glass counteracting the heat he'd cranked up on the radiator. Symby wasn't a big fan of water, definitely not so much of it coming down at once, but it hadn't complained as it fought back the rain that streamed down overhead on the way back. Its surface was able to repel the worst of it, but Eddie could tell it still felt as damp as Felicia did standing and dripping in his bathroom.

Dripping. Stripping. Wait. No. He shook his head, and she was still dressed. Sadly. Not in her suit, though. That was _his_ shirt stretched over her, the one he swore he'd just been wearing. Not… anymore, though. Symby was there instead, tight around his chest. Holding his heart in as it started to hammer at the sight of her. In his apartment. In his shirt.

...Fuck, she looked good in it.

"Is there anywhere I can…?" She held up her dripping suit, but all Eddie could see was her curves under his clothes. He was staring. He knew he was staring, he knew _where _he was staring, and he knew how obvious it was, and she was gonna slap him if he kept it up and he'd deserve it and he couldn't look away and _Symby why aren't you helping-?!_

His eyes were wrenched up to much safer territory, and he held back a sigh of

of relief. He preferred looking at her face anyway.

"I'll put it near the radiator for you," he offered, and he felt his biceps tense in preparation as he took the suit from her… he didn't know why, though. It felt like it barely weighed anything.

Felicia noticed he had gone stiff, and cocked her head curiously as her hand fell. "Something wrong?"

Something _did _feel wrong. He was anticipating the beats of the evening to come, yet they didn't hit quite right. He couldn't explain it. He couldn't even name it. All he could do was weigh the far too light suit in his hand as he put it over the radiator and tried to tell himself he wasn't going insane.

"I just… feel like it should be heavier," Eddie told her, almost making each word a question onto itself. Why did he think that...?

"Why d'you think that?" Felicia asked, and for a second he thought that maybe she was a latent psychic or mutant this whole time. Or maybe his face was just that easy to read.

"I… don't know," he confessed. "I feel like I've… carried it before or something."

She cocked her head, white locks tumbling down from her face like an avalanche. "You an expert on villain fashion now?"

Wasn't her hair supposed to be wet?  
"Exactly." He spoke more from a reflex than from a conscious thought, his mouth moving automatically before he realised it even was. "I mean… yes."

What the hell was happening to him? He felt like… he'd done all this before. Like he was reading off of a script that had some pages missing, some new notes made in the margins.

"And yet you only have two shirts to change between?" Felicia asked, still standing there in front of him, blind to his turmoil just as he tried to stay blind to her beauty. But when she spoke, the panic dissolved. The script was gone now. From this point, they really were both running blind.

Well, not entirely for him. Once again, all Eddie could see was her. All he _wanted _to see was her. He felt his throat close up just before he realised he was salivating, like Venom when he saw blood. He had to swallow to speak, to make sure that his tongue was still in his mouth and even able to fit inside it.

"Counterpoint," he said, clearing his throat once again to bite back a growl from his less presentable side. "You're still wearing one of them." He pointed towards her chest, but as his finger reached out he realised how close she really was. As if she was floating closer with every second that passed, every second he spent thinking he should have been pulling away. But Symby, or something else, kept him firmly in place. He was glad for it. He was right where he wanted to be, watching her face. Her breasts. Her hands trailing up his chest, her soft fingers making the symbiote over his skin peel back as his heart galloped beneath her touch.

"Would you rather I _wasn't_ wearing it?" she asked softly.

For some reason, he had to think about it. Even though the answer was obvious.

"...Yeah, actually, I would."

Her hands still roamed his chest, fingertips stroking up his pecs and along his shoulders, until they reached behind his neck. He felt tingles course down his spine, from where those fingers touched his skin, and he noticed that his own were tracing a path along her back. Feeling the hard ridges of her spine, and the shudders along it through the shirt.

"Aren't you going to take it off, then?" Felicia asked, breathing heavily through the gap in her lips that Eddie couldn't take his eyes off of.

"Seems rude to without a kiss first," he mumbled.

"Then kiss me."

Their lips were almost touching anyway, and he felt her breath grant permission on his before he heard it sighing out. He couldn't tell who leaned in first, him or her or maybe Symby tugging his neck down, but it was definitely her who first pulled on his tongue, inviting him in deeper.

He held the back of her skull, interleaving her hair in his fingers, not caring whether or not they were supposed to be damp. Thin arms hooked tighter around his neck, hiding immense strength that rivalled his own, that he only felt when she used them to hold on as he picked her up, wrapping her legs around him. He could feel her clenching, clawing, gripping him like a lifeline as they kissed while he carried her, pressing her down on his bed. She lay sprawled beneath him, panting, biting her lip and daring him to rip her apart in all the best ways. Her hair was like a halo, glowing white around her beaming face, the two-sizes-too-big-for-her shirt billowing around her perfect curves like a hundred creased wings stretching out of her…

God, she was like an angel. She was far too happy to be under him. And she did not belong in his bed… yet here she was. And here he was, pulling his clothes off of her. Unwrapping her, peeling away her hard shell while he only got harder, all the way down to the white-laced underwear she seemed to wear just for him. The hourglass curves they bit into, her bra barely able to contain her breasts, and the taut muscles carved into her stomach...

"What are you waiting for?" Felicia looked up at him, fluttering heavy eyelids as if she knew how lethal her gaze could be. Eddie couldn't breathe. His diaphragm lay flat and silent while his heart went into overdrive, the oxygen trapped in his throat with nowhere else to go in his frozen, stifling body. This was the first time, the first time since he found Symby again, that it registered as a problem. As if even the symbiote was too distracted by her and the unbearable heat between them to keep his lungs moving. Even when he gulped down the lump in his throat, he still felt the simmering on his tongue along with the taste of her mouth.

"...I just can't believe how beautiful you are," he breathed. It really shouldn't have been such a shock, and in a way it wasn't. He wasn't surprised that she was beautiful. He just hadn't been prepared for the magnitude of it, for what she hid under the leather. And with how long it had been since he'd seen any woman like this, let alone one like her… well, he'd _never _met a woman like her.

And, of course, she knew that there _was _no woman like her. She knew exactly what she was doing at all times, and this was no exception.

"I'm not even naked yet and you're already awestruck." She reached for his face to emphasize 'yet', tracing the hard line of his jaw while tilting her hips up, oh so briefly pressing into the bulge sitting heavy in his jeans. Grinning as he growled.

"Well, let's change that…" Eddie seized her mouth, letting her muffle his hungry snarls as he tore away her underwear. She squealed, rich and delightful laughter bubbling up from her throat, thrumming under his lips as he kissed her neck, looking up at her face while he finally peeled away her bra-

And then he saw the window behind her head. It wasn't raining anymore, but that alone wouldn't have called his attention away from her. Something was happening on the street.

Something… weird.

"Is that… RoboCop outside?" he asked himself, feeling his eyebrows crease as he squinted through the glass.

Felicia moaned underneath him. "Probably…"

"Is he... fighting dinosaurs? And who's that guy in the red suit riding them?"

"Hiya Venom!" The red guy waved at him from atop a T-Rex's muzzle. "It's me, Deadpool! Ya fuck that hot cat chick yet?"

_That_ was Deadpool? The hell was he doing here?!

"Eddie." Felicia pulled his face back to hers, reminding him of what was really important at the moment.

"Right. Sorry." He kissed her- God, he loved kissing her already, feeling her smooth tongue and how her teeth pulled on his, how she threaded through his hair, how she encouraged the subconscious thrusts from his hips into hers, _fuck _he needed her, he was throbbing, aching for her, delirious and panting and drowning in her moans and lost in her eyes-

"Eddie…" Felicia's sweet breath was in his ear as he tore at the buttons on his jeans and silently cursed not being able to just peel them away. "Do something for me."

Eddie paused despite how distracting, how unbearable the pressure in his pants was. She was worth every second he had to spare, and he groaned in obedience. "Anything."

Then her lips were on his forehead, pressing in deep, soothing the ache behind his closed eyes just before they had to fly open as she mouthed-

"Wake up."

Eddie gasped against his pillow, and swore he could still feel her lips on his in those precious few seconds before he blinked awake into darkness and realised it was just a dream.

Just another dream about her.

'_Not again…' _At this rate, he was starting to miss the nightmares. At least those didn't make him wake up with his mouth dry, skin sticky from sweat and all the blood drained from his head. Brain throbbing in his skull, cock throbbing in his pants, filling in each other's gaps so all he felt was one long, constant ache at either end of his body.

But… this time was different. She really _was _here. He could smell her soap, perfume, whatever it was that made her smell so good. Or maybe that was just from his dream too.

"...Felicia?" He whispered in the dark, just in case she was really there. Just in case-

"_**She left, Eddie." **_The symbiote gently spilled over his shoulder, hovering its face in front of his as he sat up. As the black and white dripped into shape, he slowly remembered what had really happened, reluctantly sifting apart the reality from his dream.

"...When?" he asked.  
_**"About half an hour ago. I didn't want to disturb you, and neither did she."**_

Eddie heard himself groan, though all it did was make the aches worse. He tried loosening his jeans, hoping the erection would go away on its own if he just stopped thinking about her.

"It wasn't, uh…. _obvious_ what I was dreaming about… was it?" The last thing he needed was knowing she saw the bulge that was staring back at him right now- or, even worse, that she heard anything...

"_**No**_**," **Symby replied._**"I made sure of that."**_

Eddie sighed again, though this time the relief gave him at least some cushioning against the feeling of being submerged in acid. That was what his sweat felt like. Drops of acid burning into his skin. His head fell back on his pillow, sinking into it, and when he closed his eyes he could still see Felicia grinning up at him. Teasing him for what they both knew was never going to happen.

"...It felt real."

He opened his eyes, and found Symby's looking back as it hovered over him.

"_**Why don't you make it real?"**_it asked, as if it was really that easy.

"I don't know how to."

"_**Yes you do, love." **_Symby sounded like a teacher trying to tease an answer out of its student.

"I… I don't," he insisted. "It's been so long since I…" So long since he'd even found a woman he wanted to be with, let alone made any kind of advance on one. He'd been too preoccupied with trying to die after he gave Symby away, and then trying to stay alive after he changed his mind. It was only recently, after he'd found his Other again, that he even cared about what anyone else thought of him. Of Venom.

Times like this, he missed when he didn't mind being called a monster.

"_**It's easy, Eddie." **_Symby pulled itself closer, shimmering in the light from the window. _**"You just ask her."**_

"Ask her…?"

The symbiote retreated from view, sinking into his body and then manipulating his muscles to sit him up again. Then the black then oozed out of him, rebuilding itself on the floor into a towering model of muscle. Like Venom, but without Eddie at the core.

"_**Felicia**_**,"** the fake Venom began, addressing an invisible audience on its right,** "**_**over these past few weeks we've grown very close, and I find you very attractive. Would you like to have intercourse with me?"**_

Then Venom dissolved and reformed itself on the other side as a much slimmer creature, still muscular but with smooth curves instead of hard solid planes. A swarm of tendrils surrounded its head, looking a lot like hair that reached down to its ample rear.

"_**Why, Eddie**_**,"** the… She-Venom said, letting its voice favor the more feminine pitch it usually had,** "**_**I'm honoured that you'd ask. Of course I would accept such an offer from a prime specimen of a human like you."**_It placed a handful of claws over the cleavage it had gifted itself, almost as big as Felicia's, and just like with hers Eddie found it difficult to look away (even though it wasn't doing him any good towards making the erection die down).

"...I feel like you're making fun of me," he said, forcing himself to watch its face before he found out he was in yet another weird sex dream. He saw the sculpted symbiote narrow its eyes into tiny white slits at him.

"_**I am not!"**_It stomped its foot in frustration, though since it had no weight of its own it didn't even make a sound. _**"I just don't understand why it's so difficult for both of you."**_

"...Both of us?"

Symby shook its head, the tendrils tumbling down from it whipping about like snakes._**"Never mind. What are you so worried about? It's not like you have much competition for her."**_It floated over to him, still looking like her, still making him wonder why his throat was closing up-

And then it hit him. Symby looked like how Annie had. When she… before she…

Oh God.

Eddie turned over, flinching away from Symby to try and make the memory go away. To try and stay afloat in the guilt that was flooding him like ice in his veins where the symbiote usually kept him warm.

"Could you-?" Something choked him, Annie's ghost wrapping her claws around his neck, her shadow stretched across the wall he faced, and he had to gulp before she loosened her grip. "Could you... not look like that anymore, please?"

There were some long seconds of silence for him to endure, before Symby realised what it had just done.

"_**...Oh. I'm… I'm sorry."**_ The shadow on the wall shrank before his eyes, collapsing in on itself as if mocking his constant attempts to keep himself whole. Then it edged its way around him, snaking around his neck, feeling like a noose just before it showed itself. Symby was once again as he usually saw it; no more than thin pools of white on an ocean of black, the smooth curves of its head barely discernible from the darkness all around it.

"_**Is this better?" **_it asked.

He nodded, though he still preferred to keep his eyes squeezed shut. Pure black was better without the white judging him. Condemning him. No one could see him in the dark. He was safe.

Safe.

Shivering, but safe.

He wished Felicia was still with him. At least she was a distraction.

"_**I only want to help you, Eddie." **_Symby's voice bounced off his brain, trying to soothe it as it pulsed with painful memories. _**"And so does she. But you won't let her."**_

Eddie wished he could just swat the symbiote away. Force it out of his head so he wouldn't have to justify himself. And, despite everything, his cock was still being an issue. As always, for most men. He knew he'd only end up feeling worse if he tried to deal with it.

"It's not as simple as just… having sex with her," he tried to explain, to a creature who barely knew anything about it beyond pure biological needs. All he felt was confusion in return.

"_**You don't want to?"**_

"I do! I… I really, _really_ want to, but… there's more to it than that." So much more, where Felicia was concerned. He lay flat on his back again, fighting the urge to just suffocate himself with his pillow before he remembered that Symby would make it impossible. No easy escape for him. The symbiote waited patiently on his shoulder, blinking each eye in turn, as he tried to articulate exactly what the hell was wrong with him. All the other times of trying hadn't made it any easier.

"For the first time," he said slowly, "in a very long while… I feel like I have someone I can trust. Someone other than you. And whenever that's happened before, either I was wrong about them or… I found a way to fuck it up."

"_**You don't think you're wrong about Felicia," **_the symbiote stated.

"No...I'm just so scared of fucking it up again."

"_**You might. And you can always try and fix it if you do. But if you don't try at all…"**_

Eddie sighed before he filled in the gap. "Then at least neither of us will get hurt."

"_**Are you more scared for her, or yourself?"**_

"...Her. Both. I don't know…" He covered his face, almost clawing at it, wishing Venom could just tear him apart and be done with it. Leave him as a tired carcass. Just to give him some chance at peaceful sleep, even if he wouldn't wake from it.

Was this what Annie felt, when she realised what Venom had turned her into? When she realised what kind of man she'd married?

And would the same inevitably happen to Felicia?

Yes, his neurons chanted. Yes, because you, Eddie, do nothing but hurt the people stupid enough to want anything to do with you. And then you hurt everyone else around to try and make up for it. As if to make sure everyone suffered equally.

Not even aliens were safe. He'd hurt Symby more than anyone else. Yet there it was in his head, still trying to drown out the truth and the memories it brought to him, but it wasn't working anymore. It was something that he couldn't unhear. It was stuck in his brain like a virus, infecting every thought it came across and he was scared, he was so scared of so many things. Losing Symby again. The cancer coming back. Wherever he was heading to when he finally died, and facing Annie again just before he went there.

But he wasn't scared of loving Felicia.

No, he was fucking _terrified _of it.

"_**Eddie." **_Symby could tell he was blocking it out. It tracked his eyes, swimming across the membranes just before it surged up from his chest to demand his attention. _**"Do you remember what you told me about comfort zones? When you kept making me push against mines-"**_

"That was me trying to get you to eat new food that wasn't raw," Eddie interrupted. "This… this is so, so different. It's not just a comfort _zone _it's… it's like a minefield." An endless, empty, emotional minefield. One step in the wrong direction, and his heart would be the least broken part of him.

Symby faltered, hanging limp on its tether as it leaned into him. _**"You can't close yourself off to other humans forever, love."**_

It was both a lecture and a plea that begged him to listen.

"Yes I can," he insisted. "And I will. I don't _need_ other humans… not when I have you."

He'd meant it to reassure the symbiote that he was fine, but it didn't react to the hand it held up to its face.

"_**You know you're lying to all three of us,"**_ it told him._**"And you promised Felicia to have no secrets…"**_

Eddie let his hand fall cold on his chest, trying not to look away from the symbiote's stare. "I'm allowed to keep a few to myself. Especially… ones like this."

There was a gurgle that mingled with the hollow pump of plasma around his brain. Symby's version of a sigh. _**"I don't understand you sometimes, Eddie. You love me. What is so different about loving her as well that you find it so hard to admit?"**_

"I don't love her. Not… not like you." He stuttered around the tumour taking root again in his throat. Or maybe that was Symby closing around his neck, knowing he was still lying.

And then, somewhere in the journey its molecules took around his own, Klyntar and Earth united in his bloodstream, it finally discovered what he'd been hiding all this time. Why, even though they married in almost every sense of the word, Eddie found it so hard to call it his wife, or even see it as anything other than… an _it_.

"_**...Do you love me even though I'm not human?" **_Symby asked_**. "Or **_**because**_** I'm not human?"**_

It knew him. It knew him, literally, inside and out. And it knew not to make it sound like an accusation, even though that was all it could have been.

All his life, he'd struggled with own kind. His own family, even, what little of it that he had. Was it so wrong to turn away from them, to something else he didn't have to try so hard to understand, to… to stop from leaving him?

He didn't want to have to answer it. God, he just wanted to go back to sleep, but he knew there was no point in asking Him for any help. He'd known that for a long, long time.

"I don't want to talk about it anymore." Eddie stumbled on saying 'it', and turned his back to the rest of his world before Symby could try and dissect his tremors. He didn't feel it give up and stream back through his skin. No, it kept a vigil over him, only giving him a minute or so of respite.

"_**In your dream, she kissed your head, didn't she?"**_

He'd said he hadn't wanted to talk about _it _anymore, meaning Felicia. Not the dream itself. Once again, Symby either didn't pick up on human signals or just chose to ignore them. Eddie could only blame himself for not being more assertive, as he groaned and buried his face in his pillow.

"Yeah… were you looking in on it?"

"_**I would never invade your privacy like that." **_It sounded appalled at the mere suggestion of such a thing. _**"No. I know because she kissed mine."**_

Eddie lifted his eyes up. "Before she left?"

"_**Just thought you'd like to know. She's still a good kisser."**_

Another groan as he buried himself once again, trying to escape the symbiote even as it wormed under his skin. It was trying to soothe him, to lighten the mood and assure him that everything would be fine. It always told him the sweetest lies, whether or not he wanted to hear them.

"_**I just want what's best for you, darling," **_it thudded against his ear._** "You need someone else to love. You need Felicia. And, believe it or not, I think she needs you."**_

He almost coughed the symbiote out as he scoffed, turning over to face the wall again. "She doesn't _need_ anything. Not anything I can give her, at least."

He felt pressure on his shoulder, assuming it was Symby trying to turn him back over before it intensified into a hard pinch. The usual way of scolding him _and _seizing his attention.

"_**Stop that," **_it said firmly._** "Stop being so hard on yourself." **_As if alien words could erase a lifetime of deserved loathing.

"Why shouldn't I be?" Eddie countered, curling deeper into himself. "Everyone else is, and they've all been right about me so far."

He could feel Symby's exhausted sigh deep in the pit of his stomach. _**"Why are you so convinced that Felicia is like everyone else?"**_

'_She isn't,' _Eddie heart whispered up the seizures in his throat. '_Cause she's even more dangerous than any of them.' _He erased the words with another hard scoff, more like a growl, scrubbing his vocal cords of anything that Symby could latch onto before it came out of his mouth.

"Why are _you _so convinced that she wants anything to do with us," Eddie snapped back, "beyond using us to get off on this hero kick?"

"_**Because you wouldn't be thinking this much about her, if you really believed that's all there is to it." **_Symby's eyes were in front of him, daring him to keep arguing against the truth. He answered the dare with his back, turning away so he could cradle his pounding head without whites burning into it. He didn't hate when the symbiote was right. He just hated being wrong.

"Christ, Symby…" Even now he didn't like dragging the Holy Spirit's son into his fucked-up life, but he didn't know what else to say as he tried to stop his skull from exploding. Words just came out like steam hissing from an overloaded machine. "Is it not obvious I'm trying _not _to think about her? There's nothing good there for us, and talking about it is a waste of time-"

"_**Nothing that might make you happy is a waste of time." **_Symby tried to sound so encouraging, so hopeful, and that only made him angrier.

"It's _not fucking happening_!" The pressure behind his eyes reached boiling point, and he stared off into dark nothing because the confrontation was all in his cells, the heat in his blood forcing Symby out of his veins through his still-stinging pores. He felt it retreat, pulling back in fear and he hated doing it, he hated forcing it away, but if he didn't he feared he'd combust and take it out with him.

"God, just… why can't you just let this go?" Black sweat puddled from his arms, black tears trailed from his eyes, and still he tried to purge it by snarling into the darkness that was indistinguishable from his infuriating symbiote. And he saw that it wasn't just darkness after all, when it surged towards him to retaliate in kind.

"_**Because **_**I **_**love you, Eddie! And I thought that was good enough!" **_Fangs pressing in all around him, snarls like thunder in his ears, just for a second before it lost its fury and sagged limp and tired before him._** "But… it isn't. And it never will be." **_

Eddie watched his symbiote, finally having admitted the horrible truth, collapse under the weight of it. It lost all form, all shape and mass, dissolving into a defeated black puddle that crawled towards the edge of his bed, to rejoin the rest of the anonymous, amorphous darkness-

Before he pulled it back, sweeping his arm around his love before it could slip away again. And he held it to his chest, squeezing it, hugging it as best as he could without forcing it through the gaps in his limbs. It fought at first, still trying to pull away and leave him alone just when he realised that being alone was the last thing he ever wanted. But when Eddie refused to let go, it settled. It moulded itself against him, casting his chest as it heaved with both of their aches and sadness.

The whole time Eddie had been fretting over Felicia, thinking and dreaming and trying _not _to, he hadn't even thought of how neglected his Other would be. Not just rejecting its advice, its attempts to give him something worth working for, but rejecting it entirely in even thinking of being with someone else. Symby was just trying to deal with the risk of losing him again, as gracefully as it could, and he was still as self-centered as he ever was, as he ever would be.

"I'm… I'm sorry, Symby. I've been so selfish, I didn't think-"

The symbiote was bleeding back into his skin, slowly, and it sent a reassuring pulse across his spine. _**"No, no, that's not what I meant." **_Symby waited until it was nestled in his nerves again to go on, so he would know every word in his head was sincere.

"_**I'm not jealous. Not at all. I'm… I just know now that there's only so much I can do for you. That's no one's fault. I can alter your hormones, flood your brain with all the serotonin that can be made, fix your broken bones, but… everything below the surface is out of my reach. After so long on this planet, there's still so much I don't understand about humans." **_It sighed, and it was ironically one of the most human sounds Eddie had ever heard. _**"And I was about to accept that I never **_**would **_**understand… until Felicia found us. I knew, I knew from the moment I first saw her on the Spider's skin-" **_It flashed a memory that wasn't his across his brain-_** "that she was something special. Peter knew it. Flash knew it. And now you've realised it too. She's been a constant for me... for both of us. It only seems like a few weeks since you've really noticed her, but really… it's all been building up to this. For you, the feelings are rushing in all at once, and they confuse and scare you. But, for me, I suppose I've been prepared for this for a long time. Because when I see her... I see the woman I've been trying to be for you all along."**_

Eddie listened, to the muffled traffic outside his window, to the groan of his lungs to the symbiote's voice and his heartbeat as they became one. Each word was absorbed by his grey matter, printed into his neurons. And, for the first time since they found each other, since the symbiote saved him, he understood it.

Her.

He understood _her_.

"...Is that how you see yourself?" he asked her quietly while lying there, subconsciously rewiring his whole perception of her. Marriage, love, _wife_, all the signs pointed towards her trying to give him some semblance of what he'd lost with Annie. She'd been trying to tell him for so long.

"_**You've been in love with a woman this whole time, Eddie,"**_ Symby whispered._** "You don't need to be scared of Felicia because of that."**_

She was right. Always, always, she was right. But, now he realised, that wasn't what scared him about her.

"Every woman I love, I end up hurting." It was a muttered confession into his arms, as they kept hugging tight around him and the empty space where Symby's residue had been. She heard the vibrations of his voice across his skin.

"_**I've done just fine until now, haven't I?"**_ she pointed out._** "And Felicia is even stronger than I am."**_

Eddie gulped. He was running out of excuses, other than just admitting that he was a coward and terrified of rejection. "You really like her too, huh?"

"_**Of course I do." **_The proof was in how Symby bloomed in his blood as she talked about her. _**"Look at what we went through tonight to protect her. She won't forget that. She'll help us in kind one day. She's good for us both. She makes you happy. And I want you to be happy, love."**_

It was a nice thought. A lovely thought. "But..."

"_**But what?"**_

"You might not be jealous _now_, but… say if anything _does_ happen between me and Felicia some day..." He could only imagine how spurned Symby would be over it, how she would react to having to compete for what she'd gotten freely from him. He _did _imagine it, just to show her what he meant. But, with cold pulses in his blood, he only confused her.

"_**Who said you can't love us both?" **_she asked. And Eddie… now _he _was the one confused. He had no rebuttal to it, no clearly logical answer to give. _No-one _hadsaid he couldn't love both, but… wasn't it like cheating? Were the rules changed by having one of your loves living inside you? He didn't think so, but...

"_**Love is not a finite resource, Eddie,**_" Symby told him, with gentle tendrils under his skull._** "Especially not from you."**_

He felt his face catch fire, and breathed in deep to try and extinguish the flare. Symby had been right about everything else tonight.

"...Do you mean that?" he whispered.

"_**I mean everything I say, otherwise I wouldn't say it. After all… **_**I**_** could love you both. And I'm only an alien."**_

The way Symby said it, Eddie would have guessed that she already did. She was generous with emotions like that, whenever they came to her. Even if she didn't already, he wanted to believe her. But it had taken this long to even accept Symby as anything, anyone like the wife he'd once had, and not just a replacement for her. If Felicia ever even accepted him, if he ever found the courage to ask her if she could… maybe by then, somehow, it would be too late.

"_**Think about it, darling. When you're able to." **_There was a tug on his shoulder, as Symby pulled something warm across him._** "Just don't let her slip away because you're scared."**_

"You really _are_ like a wife sometimes," Eddie mumbled.

"_**I try to be. But Felicia would fit it well too, don't you think?"**_

He didn't answer that. Not out loud, at least. Symby didn't want to dig any further into his soul that night to find where he kept the answer, so she finally left him to sleep.


	21. Night 16

_On AO3 the real chapter 21 was a chain of text messages between Eddie and Felicia shown through images. Since of course doesn't allow image embedding, I have no choice but to skip over that chapter here and just go onto 22, which is what this one is. The proper chapter 21 can be seen on the AO3 version of this story._

**xx**

Even over the harsh hiss of the shower spilling water past his shoulders, Eddie still heard Symby's voice throbbing in his head.

'_Just ask her.'_

Just ask her… what? If she wanted to go on a date? Did criminals even _do _dates? If any of them did, they hadn't exactly offered any advice on how to go about it. Even if he knew what the hell to say to her, that wasn't going to get his hopes up off the ground. After all, he was… well, he was himself. Though he didn't know if it was because of who he was or who _she _was that made it so difficult to take ]the risk of letting himself love her. He couldn't see how to convince her to give him the chance, or what to do next when she said no or, in even more terrifying unlikelihood, if she said yes...

But, even though he couldn't even think of how to get to it, he could see a future with her. A better one. And he wanted it, for himself and for Symby. But… he doubted she'd have a better one with them.

Eddie blew out steam in a heavy sigh, pressing his forehead against the tiled wall below the shower head. Though the water was warm, he still shivered. He'd scrubbed himself with the only soap he hadn't completely used up, yet he didn't feel any better. And though he tried to wash away everything that he had to regret, if only for tonight, it all kept swirling stubbornly in his brain like the foam around his feet. If he wasn't thinking of all the ways trying to be with Felicia could go wrong, all the ways it _would _go wrong, then he was thinking of everything he wanted with her. Everything he couldn't have, but everything that he couldn't stop dreaming about-

"No, _no_! Not now!" He hissed through gritted teeth when he felt a familiar throb between his legs, and he turned so his back was flat against the wall as he turned the water temperature as far down as it would go. He'd avoided using Felicia's bathroom the last few days just because he was so cautious of getting stuck with an erection around her. There was only so much Symby could do to hide it when he had to walk around in front of Felicia. And considering its- _her _insistence on acting like an alien cupid for them both, he didn't trust her to do him any favours.

And yet he had to trust her to make a suit for him all evening… this was going to be a long night. It was _already_ a long night, since he was sure he'd spent at least half an hour standing in the shower not wishing he was somewhere else, but wishing he was some_one_ else (then again, he was used to doing that). Someone else who didn't have a raging boner, at the very least.

'_These women are gonna be the fucking death of me…' _Eddie inhaled sharply as icy water started flooding over him, but he endured it just to get his dick under control for once in his life. Once it was thankfully limp again, he shut the water off and grabbed one of Felicia's ridiculously huge towels. But even with how big it was, he doubted it would have managed to hide his dick at full length. He told it one last time to behave, then dried off before edging the door open just wide enough to let Symby in.

She pulled herself across the tiles like a snake, shuddering when she had to pass over puddles, but otherwise the humidity wasn't a major concern. He never really needed to keep her out of the bathroom, since she could have just hidden inside his bloodstream while he washed. He just made the excuse so she could keep an eye on Felicia for him. He didn't even know at first that they could both understand each other, but if they'd been talking since the first night he came...

Whatever it was they talked about, maybe it was why Symby liked her so much. He just hoped the symbiote hadn't told her too much about his… situation. Or anything at all, actually. The last thing he needed was her having any more reasons to pity him.

"What were you saying to her?" he asked as Symby climbed up his body, spreading over his skin while he towel-dried his hair.

"_**Thanking her for bringing us food. Eating with us, too."**_ Symby knew what clothes to make, but it took her some seconds to figure out how to emulate a suit that was slightly different to any she had to make before. Eddie adjusted each part of it as it came into being.

"_**...Does that not count as a 'date'?"**_ Symby asked.

"What?" Eddie loosened the tie that appeared around his neck, but that wasn't what was making him feel like he was choking.

"_**That's what you always called us eating together,"**_ Symby explained. "_**Two loved ones, enjoying each other's company. Exactly what you've been doing with Felicia-"**_

He shook his head stubbornly. "It's not the same thing."

"_**But you **_**do** _**enjoy her company, don't you?"**_

Eddie didn't answer. Oh God, had he been dating her this whole time and never even realised? Did she know that as well? Did she even see any of those nights together as dates? What if she didn't?

So many questions clogging up his cortex, but only one he could actually hear.

"_**Why are you so nervous, Eddie?"**_

Symby could have easily found the answer herself if she did a little digging into his brain. But it knew better than to go too far into that maelstrom.

"I'm not," he told her, bracing himself with his hand on the door. "I just fucking hate parties."

He stepped out, and when he saw Felicia at her dressing table he felt Symby echo his own silent gasp in his lungs.

He'd been expecting her dress to be black, but not so… well, of course he wasn't the fashion expert he'd claimed to be last night so he couldn't say what made it so enchanting. Maybe the trail of glittering diamond studs that trickled down from her neckline, curling to her left like a stray wind had caught them, following the trail of the slit in the fabric that exposed her leg. And as the diamonds showered down the black fabric their path widened, so that when they reached the hem it looked like she had torn an arm of the Milky Way right out of the night sky and wrapped it tight around her. Although, he doubted a galaxy could have been half as radiant as she was.

She was just finishing pinning her hair into place. Like a mountain made of intricate curls of snow, tightly packed and tied together with a braid of white that reached behind her skull. And from the half of her face he could see, she'd applied only slightly more makeup than usual. Not that she even needed it.

She looked better than most women did on their wedding days.

Even better than… no. He shook himself before he could remember that.

"How do we look?" Eddie caught her attention when he asked, and she spent some long seconds looking him up and down. He was prepared to hear some insincere appraisal, but when she stood she almost seemed impressed.

"Your tie's a little crooked." Felicia set to adjusting it while Eddie tried to avert his eyes from the perfect angle down towards her cleavage. He cleared his throat with Felicia's fingers so close to it, trying so so hard not to need another cold shower so soon after the first.

"Where'd you get that dress?" he asked, while still making a point of not staring at it any more.

"From a lovely little boutique in Queens that really needed a better alarm system." Felicia winked as she finished making Eddie presentable, and only smiled more when he scowled in disapproval.

"I'll hand it back after tonight," she promised dismissively. "I just don't like being stuck to opening hours. You have the invites with you?"

Eddie still frowned, but he couldn't deny that he was just glad she was wearing the dress regardless of how she got it. "Yeah. Symby kept them safe for me." The envelopes bubbled up out of his sleeve as Symby passed them to his head.

"Did Liz ever say what this party is about?" Felicia asked.

"It's some kind of fundraiser. Probably on behalf of Kingpin or someone working for him." That's what Eddie assumed, since it seemed the only politicians not on Fisk's payroll were ones that didn't last long.

"Probably." Felicia gave herself one last look in the mirror. "Come on, our ride's downstairs."

Eddie had been ready to leave through the window, so seeing Felicia actually head toward her front door was a shock. "We're not using the roofs?"

"If you wanna show up looking like you've just ran over ten blocks, then go ahead," she called from the living room.

Outside, there was a car waiting that looked like it cost more than Eddie would have paid for ten years' worth of rent, and certainly didn't look like it belonged in a city with traffic like New York.

"Since when have you owned a Lambo?!"

Felicia smirked as she took the driver side. "I don't. Just borrowing this one for the night."

"Like how you borrowed that dress?" Eddie didn't bother frowning this time as he took the other side, the leather seat creaking expensively under him.

"Exactly." Felicia grinned as Eddie rolled his eyes. He had the feeling that tonight he'd see the Black Cat in her natural environment. And that where she was concerned, he was doomed no matter what.

**xx**

Even though she was in a stolen car, Felicia didn't look too concerned about anyone seeing her in it. If anything, she was intent on showing it off as she pulled in right in front of the Alchemax tower. Eddie fought not to roll his eyes again, eager to get away from the stolen property before police had any more reasons to throw him in jail (he was pretty sure this whole evening would make him an accomplice to something). He was at the foot of the steps that lead to the door when he heard Felicia loudly clearing her throat behind him.

"Ahem." She'd opened her door but remained seated, with her hand stretched out as if she was expecting him to take it. Of course she was. Eddie sighed as he went back to indulge her.

"You're really milking this 'high society' thing, aren't you?" He saw her even gather up the hem of her dress so it didn't touch the ground, offering an even better look at her legs that he struggled to ignore.

"One of us has to," she answered, letting him lead her all the way up the stairs. It wasn't until halfway up that he remembered to give Felicia her own invitation, and it wasn't until they reached the top that he remembered he'd forgotten to tell her about a slight discrepancy on it.

Well, actually, he didn't exactly remember. She just saw it for herself when she opened the envelope.

"'Felicia _Brock_'?" She turned the invite so he'd see it right there on the front, all curly and fancy and official. Eddie fully understood why she stood there gawking in confusion, so he pulled her aside so they weren't blocking the way for everyone else looking like they'd just walked right off of the cover of a magazine he couldn't afford.

"Well Felicia 'Hardy' is still a wanted criminal," he reminded her, keeping his voice low. "And I don't know what name you use nowadays, so… I guess Liz thought it was a way to not get cops over here to arrest us both. If it makes you feel better, she gave me _your _last name." He showed his own invite with 'Edward Hardy' stamped on it. As if the 'Edward' alone wasn't bad enough…

Felicia still held him in place with a cocked eyebrow, but there wasn't much she could do about it now. So long as they got them both inside, what did it matter what was written on them?

As it turned out, they _did _get inside. Far too easily for Eddie's liking, but he supposed that he was still a familiar face around the tower.

"So I guess Symby doesn't need her own invite?" Felicia asked once the relief had passed.

"I think she counts as a 'plus one'." Eddie felt his suit tighten for a few seconds, as if she was burrowing into him.

They'd reached the main lobby which, just as Typhoid Mary described, had been transformed into a lavish ballroom. Well, it was more tacky than anything else in Eddie's opinion. He didn't recognise anyone else gathered there, not outside of their villain outfits at least (though one familiar guy was using a boomerang to shovel food off of silver trays and into his pockets when he thought no one was looking). Felicia didn't look all that impressed either, but he supposed she was used to breaking into far grander places. Instead she focused on him, specifically the arm that she'd looped through hers without comment.

"So what made 'her' switch from an 'it'?" she asked, once again (unintentionally or not) catching Eddie off guard. Symby didn't seem to mind the question, but… he didn't even quite know what the answer was. He knew Symby had always seen herself as his other half, and she knew that the closest people (or… person) in his life had all been female. It must have just been the logical step for her to take towards making their bond as strong as it could be. And it was only recently that he'd actually acknowledged it as a step, and allowed her to take it for them both.

That was all that Eddie could think of in way of explanation, since Symby hadn't really offered any for herself. All he knew was that being a 'she' made her happy. Maybe she didn't even know why. It made her happy, and that was good enough for her- and for him.

When it came to putting all of that into a simple answer for Felicia, Eddie let Symby form it for him.

"I think she took inspiration from you," he said.

Felicia's eyebrows shot up, but she looked pleased to carry the blame. "I am known to be a bad influence. But I think she makes a good lady." She looked down at her arm, where Symby reached out tiny tendrils to her in appreciation. Only for a second, just long enough for her to feel them before they disappeared back into Eddie.

"Well, no one's tried to kill us yet," he muttered, scanning the wide room for anyone who looked they might. "I think my disguise as a normal person is working for once."

"Liz doesn't look very happy to see you," Felicia pointed out, just as he spotted her. Liz's suit wasn't any more extravagant than what she always wore, but the bodyguards around her were so good at their jobs that you couldn't see much of her anyway. Eddie only saw enough of her face to know she was glaring over at him.

"Most people aren't," he said. "But she won't kick us out so long as we behave ourselves."

"I guess all the security around her is to make sure of that," Felicia added. "Almost as if she doesn't trust you to handle tonight yourself."

"She did mention something about calling in someone for backup," Eddie remembered, "but I don't-" He'd reached for a tiny piece of food that came floating past on a tray, but his hand was left empty in the air when it went by. Once he saw the familiar man standing next to Liz, he lost his appetite in a second.

"Oh, for fuck's sake..."

Of all the people in the city, in the galaxy, it had to be Flash fucking Thompson, didn't it? He seemed to have the exact same reaction to seeing Eddie, spluttering up the gulp of champagne he'd just taken. Or maybe it was from seeing Felicia, who gave him a coy wave with a flick of her wrist.

"Looks like he wants to speak to one of us," she said, noticing how Flash kept twitching his head to try and summon them over as he separated himself from Liz.

"Probably you," Eddie hoped. "If I go near him, I'll just end up bludgeoning him with his own legs."

"Now, Eddie, is that any way to treat a veteran?"

"No, but it _is_ how I treat symbiote thieves." He kept glaring at Flash despite Symby trying to devour his adrenaline before it soaked into his bloodstream. Felicia sighed as she grabbed two champagne flutes.

"I'll go talk to him." She handed one to Eddie. "You just stand here and scowl to yourself."

"More than happy to." He gladly downed the entire glass, watching her approach Flash. Somehow she perfectly timed her pace so that by the time she reached him, he was clearly regretting asking her over.

Good.

"_**I wish you wouldn't be so caustic towards him, darling."**_ Symby had given up on trying to chemically calm him down, but still let her disapproval ring out in his skull.

"I wish you never bonded with him in the first place, but we don't always get what we wish for." Eddie turned away from spying on the two exes so no one would see him talking to himself.

"_**I'd have thought you'd have been grateful for it nowadays," **_Symby said cryptically.

"And why on Klyntar would you think that?"

"_**Flash was once very close to Felicia."**_ Well, that was obvious enough. Eddie looked at them both again, and saw Flash actually blushing at her. Though he supposed he couldn't blame him.

"_**He knew things about her," **_Symby went on. "_**Things that I also know. Things that you know, too, even though you don't recognise them.**_ _**And that's why you can't stop looking at her. Why your dream felt so real-"**_

Eddie grunted behind gritted teeth to cut her off. "Can we… not talk about that?"

Symby retreated from his nerves, only clinging to his skin now, giving him a moment to feel her absence before she spoke again. "_**I'm just saying now what I said then. It doesn't have to stay a dream, love."**_

"...But maybe it's better if it does." Eddie went to grab another glass of champagne, with the idea that if Symby wasn't in his bloodstream then she couldn't stop him getting drunk tonight. As he gulped it down, he found himself standing in hearing range of a group gathered close to the left wall of the room, near the entrance. Not immediately suspicious, until you realised they were trying to whisper. Eddie abruptly slowed his drinking so he could linger a little longer, while Symby helped to amplify the hushed voices.

"All I know is he went out back to take a piss," one of them was saying, "and that's where his body was found."

Eddie struggled not to cough. They were talking about his kill… they must have been.

"You don't sound too broken up about it," someone pointed out to their friend.

"Why would I? He was a dick. Probably just got taken out by another dick."

"My money is on Venom," a new voice chimed in, and Eddie knew his heartrate was starting to make Symby worried. "That guy's been ambushing a lot of us recently. I heard he tried to get Shrike the night before his initiation."

"You think he's secretly in with the Hood too? Like, as some kind of enforcer?"

"Might be. Maybe 8 said something to someone he shouldn't have..."

"Yo, Herman!" The boomerang guy burst into the group, ruining the atmosphere as he clapped his hand onto a very nervous man's shoulder. "I got you some of those shrimp things. Ate most of them on the way over but- hey, why're you sweating so much? You got your quilt on under the suit or something?"

Eddie kept his eye on the nervous man. Herman, aka the Shocker, aka the one who had accidentally told Felicia about this 'gathering' that she was so focused on finding out more about. He must have thought his loose lips put him next on Venom's hit list. That at least confirmed that there _was _something like that about to happen.

Out of the corner of his subtle stare, Eddie caught the starry glint from Felicia's dress as she came sauntering over. He abandoned his eavesdropping to meet her halfway.

"What'd Agent Asshole want?" he asked, looking behind her to where Flash was giving his prosthetics a rest, seated conveniently close to the buffet table where he was monitoring the two of them.

"Mostly asking what the hell I was doing here," Felicia answered, "and what the hell I was doing here with _you_."

"And what'd you tell him?"

"That I was in a new kind of business nowadays. The 'none of your' business." She smiled as she finished off the last of her glass. "I don't think he's suspicious of me, though. He was mostly just warning me about you. Even gave me some of this." She held up a small vial between a thumb and forefinger, and the white substance inside made Symby hiss and almost lose her form around him as she squirmed.

"What is that…?" Eddie tried to soothe the symbiote so he wasn't left standing naked in the crowded room, while Felicia rotated the vial left and right to make its contents flow.

"Some of his Anti-Venom," she answered. "You won't believe the self control I had to exert to not make a joke about getting white goo from my exes."

"Yeah, I'm sure, now would you please put it away? On account that it'll literally kill us?" Eddie hissed while he remembered all too well what his own Anti-Venom had been capable of. Felicia shrugged as she thankfully concealed it somewhere in her dress, and Eddie felt Symby sag around him in relief.

"I just think it's funny how much he doesn't trust you," Felicia noted, handing off her empty glass to a tray full of them.

"Ditto." Eddie grunted, casting one last glare over to Flash who sat stuffing his symbiote-stealing face. Now Eddie was pissed _and _hungry. He let Symby guide his hand over a food tray and snatched up the entire contents. Whatever it was, it had enough meat for Symby to be happy. Just as he was about to shove it in his mouth, he sae another glint from Felicia standing beside him. Not from her dress this time.

"You didn't have that necklace when you came in."

She looked at him, then the hefty choker around her neck as if she'd only just noticed it was there. "Oh, this? I liberated it from a lady who had it stuffed under at least three chins. You gonna make me take it back?"

Eddie considered it, but he supposed that putting it back where it should have been was a lot harder than just taking it. "I'll just assume it looks better on you."

She smiled knowingly, and he got the feeling he'd just summoned the Black Cat's true form.

"How's the hors d'oeuvres?" she asked, pinching one of his bites for herself.

"Better than prison food." If only they weren't so goddamn small. At this rate Symby was gonna track down the kitchen in this place to devour it all for herself.

"I dunno. I kinda liked the food when I was in," Felicia admitted.

"That'll be cause _I_ was the one who kept bugging them to serve something other than cardboard," he told her, with as little smugness as he was able to smother.

"Really?" She popped another stolen bite in her mouth as she quirked her eyebrow.

"Yep. That's what they got for making me edit the inmate newspaper." When he finally got sentenced to the Vault once separating Symby from him was deemed impossible, he figured it was to stop him going even more insane from boredom. "Only so much I could do for it though; I think whoever they had writing it didn't even know how to read."

"The women's facility didn't get a newspaper. All we got was two-ply toilet paper."

"Same thing, if you ask me."

Felicia gave a single snort of laughter, and the look of her face scrunching was absolutely adorable. "You find out anything useful while I was humouring my ex?"

Eddie shook himself while his heart kept swelling up around Symby's grip. "From what I heard, most of them are speculating about how 8-Ball got killed. Some of them think Hood knows that 8 said too much and decided to make an example of him."

Felicia nodded in acknowledgement, dusting her eyes left and right to make sure no one could hear their hushed conversation. "Better than them thinking it was you."

He grunted uneasily, deciding not to add that they _did _think it was him too. He just prayed no one had saw him slipping back into the bar through that same door 8-Ball left through…

He coughed to clear his throat, and went on.

"Shocker was definitely right about a gathering happening, from how anxious he looked. They've spread out around the room by now, probably casing it for what they're doing tonight."

Felicia helped herself to one last bite and look around her before dusting her hands off. "I'm gonna go eavesdropping. We should stay together. It'll look suspicious if either of us go wandering off by ourselves."

"And if you're right about everyone always ignoring couples, maybe no one'll try to talk to us." Eddie stood smirking to himself, but Felicia didn't wait for him. She'd already found somewhere to start and left him to shuffle over with Symby on his back, taking her own account of the room and the people within it.

From what she passed on, Eddie was hit with a chilling realisation.

They were watching him.

Not just Liz and Flash, eagle-eyed for any wrong move on his part. Some of them were criminals, faces that he only now recognised now that they were pointed right at him. Not all of them, but… enough. Enough to make his skin crawl so much that Symby couldn't fight the sensation off.

Maybe they knew he'd killed one of their own. Or just that he was a killer. One of them. As bad as them.

They saw what he constantly kept trying to hide from himself, and saw it as a _good _thing.

He heard a crunch of glass, and realised he'd still been holding a champagne flute this whole time. It was broken in half in his bloody palm. He held the two halves together gingerly until he found somewhere to covertly dump them, and fortunately by then Symby had soaked up the blood. She stitched the stinging cuts on his hand back together as he finally made it to Felicia. She was like a safe island in the sea of watching monsters.

"Help us understand something, Felicia," he asked, trying not to sound too out-of-breath (adrenaline and a symbiote too preoccupied to devote herself to your lungs was a bad combination).

Felicia gave a sideways glance at him, only giving half of her attention with the other half still on eavesdropping. "I'll do my best to."

Eddie gulped, and tried to put together something that wouldn't sound too preachy.

...A Catholic trying not to sound preachy. Ha fucking ha.

"Okay. You're… a good person."

"Debatable," she cut in.

"Well, better than us. So, how do you put up with stealing? Not in a judgemental way, just… how do you not feel guilty over it?"

She looked at him again, longer this time, and shrugged. "Simple, really. I have rules."

"Like?"

"I don't take from small stores. I don't take from people- well, people who can't afford to lose anything, at least. I take from companies, galleries, _entities_, because what they've got is already classed as stolen. And those stolen goods are better in my hands than anyone else's. You know most diamonds come from one mine in Africa, and the only reason they're so expensive is cause people _think_ they're a lot rarer than they really are?"

She'd abandoned her mission for now, fully invested in Eddie's little moral quandary. Probably more invested that he actually was.

"I heard something like that," he said. "You ever break those rules?"

She looked away, then seemed to look inward as her eyes glassed over.

"...Once," she confessed quietly. "On my first night, I hit a family-owned boutique. Went back a week later to leave some money for what I took, but that week had my stomach aching from the guilt."

"What'd you take?"

She shook her head with the smile of a serial sinner filled with regret. "It was stupid. Just a silly thing my heart couldn't let go of when I saw it."

"C'mon, you didn't laugh at us so we won't laugh at you." Eddie meant what he said, and eventually Felicia believed him.

"...It was a wedding dress," she revealed, rolling her eyes at herself. "I saw it in the window, a week before my first night. I wasn't officially Black Cat by then, but that was cause I didn't have the suit ready. I went out, seeing whatever tempted me. Mostly jewelry and perfume I couldn't afford."

"So you've always had exquisite taste." Eddie was glad to see her smile grow just a bit more sincere from that. It helped fight off the memory of someone else's wedding a long long time ago.

"I happened to be nearby the store that first night," she went on. "And I was so high on the adrenaline, the thought of just disappearing with whatever I wanted… I broke in and I took it. Never wore it. Just kept it in my closet for years."

Eddie knew exactly what he wanted to ask next, and even why he wanted to. But he resisted, if only for a few seconds.

"...You still have it?"

Felicia nodded. "It's another thing that somehow managed to survive this long. Just like me."

He felt the pain in his palm disappear, and now there was nothing stopping Symby from pushing dormant words out of his mouth for him.

"Well, whoever gets to see you in it will be a very lucky man," he told her, somehow managing to get it all out in one piece.

Another smile hit him, along with another reason among hundreds to adore her. "Here I thought I only spread bad luck."

"Night's still young. Plenty of time left for some of that to show up." Though even as he said it, he felt like the luckiest man in the whole city that night just because he was spending it around her.


	22. Night 16 Part 2

The luckiest man in the city was now bored out of his skull.

A room full of criminals he couldn't do anything about, all planning something he didn't know _what _to do about, and all the while the only friend he had in the building was off doing something useful, oblivious to how hard he was trying not to be in love with her (not to mention how hard he was in general if he spent too long around her).

Well, she was the only friend he had that didn't live inside his head, at least. Symby hadn't said much since he started to drift away from Felicia's side. Not just to save himself from inevitable embarrassment around her; to scan as much of the room as he could for exits, hiding places, and what calibre of criminal they'd end up fighting by the end of the night...

but all he really succeeded in was reminding himself of how much he fucking hated parties. Especially this kind, nothing but a celebration of self-indulgent virtue signalling. They reminded him too much of his dad, the kind of shit he was involved in before the accident. When Liz had finally made the call for donations from everyone invited, he couldn't even look at her without wanting to break something.

If he looked at Felicia, he only saw a serious threat to everything he had left in his life, and if he looked anywhere else he only saw his father, who had left him with that life that had almost nothing in it worth threatening. Almost nothing… but just enough for Eddie to feel like he still had something left to lose.

The worst part was, he didn't think he would have minded losing it all to her.

At least he got some amusement out of seeing his dad reflected in the faces of the scum around him, the Hood's villains who all but revealed themselves with a spotlight from how they grimaced at having to donate anything to hold up their cover. Eddie figured the only reason they did so in the first place was because they knew they'd have it all back, with interest, by the end of the night. A small price to pay for keeping up the illusion.

But he still had no idea what kind of signal they were waiting for, or what their strategy was, or even if the Hood himself was going to make an appearance. That was what he'd been trying to find out, while Felicia kept herself busy with the bigger picture. Not only that, but also keeping an eye out for faces that were too familiar. Specifically, Typhoid Mary showing up and recognising Felicia. Thankfully, after what felt like an hour since he'd arrived, she'd yet to make an appearance. Maybe she'd been knocked back, literally, into a more timid personality that couldn't stomach showing up. Or maybe her invite got ruined from lying in the rain. But that only meant she'd force her way in if she had to...

Eddie kept drinking, gritting his teeth through another gulp of champagne from the empty glass that he only just noticed was the fifth one among the others. How long had he been standing there brooding by himself, trying to stay away from Felicia before he let out something he'd regret? No wonder Symby wasn't saying anything when she was busy working overtime on his liver.

At least, that's what he'd assumed was the reason why she didn't warn him when Flash and his hidden Anti-Venom arsenal came half-walking over.

"If you're trying to get drunk, don't bother. It's all non-alcoholic," he helpfully advised, likely smiling because he knew he wasn't being helpful at all. "Good news for me, at least."

Eddie snatched up glass number six, the same one Flash was reaching for, and polished it off before he said anything. "Fuck off, Flash."

"Not gonna ask why I was brought in to babysit you?" He crossed his arms over his chest, leaning against the table so he was practically sitting on it. Eddie was a lot more interested in why Symby hadn't noticed Agent Asshole's approach, but Flash sounded only slightly more disappointed than most people did where Eddie was concerned. "Well, ever since you wasted all that Anti-Venom formula on me," he went on, "Ms Allan has kept me busy as her new head of 'Anti-Symbiote' security. So I guess I owe you a thanks for getting me a new job."

"Good for you. I don't care. Fuck off."

The only thing Eddie hated more than people who were better than him were people who knew just how much better they were. For both his and Flash's own sake he hoped he'd take the hint and get out of aggression range, but Flash only sighed and leaned in so he wouldn't have to strain to keep his voice down. Or maybe just to watch him squirm, because he knew how easily he could send Anti-Venom through Eddie's pores.

"Look, Brock, I don't know what you and Felicia are trying to do here. I don't even know why Liz let you both in in the first place."

"Didn't she tell you?" Eddie deadpanned. "I'm the biased press. I'm giving this place a good write-up in return for free shrimp and she's here to take pictures." If Flash wasn't going to leave him alone, then he was gonna make sure he wasted as much of his time as he could.

"Funny." Flash actually manage to rival Eddie's deadpan with his own. "Quite frankly, I don't wanna know why you wanted to get in without just breaking a window like you usually do. I'm just here to warn you that if you step out of line, I won't hesitate to put you down."

Eddie rolled his eyes. He'd heard far worse threats that just rolled off his back. "I know. That's why you gave Felicia the option to do it for you."

"It's a last resort. That's what we agreed on when I gave her it. I would've wanted someone to have some on hand when I was Venom." Flash said it as if to explain that it wasn't just because Eddie was now part of Venom. It was simply because of Venom, the nature of the devil they shared. If you didn't have it, you had to have a way to kill whoever did have it.

It was just a contingency. Nothing personal.

It was exactly what Eddie had done to him.

Yet, the predictable hypocrite that he was, it didn't stop Eddie from hating him. It was so similar to hating himself that he couldn't stop the habit from coming back, because they were so alike in more ways than he felt comfortable admitting, more than just from falling for the same woman.

Though that woman had fallen for Flash as well. Eddie knew exactly why. It was for all the things that he had that she didn't. That he didn't either, and never would have. Things that neither of them could take by force.

He was standing next to a guy who had no symbiote, no legs, no idea of what was really going on around him, and yet he was still jealous. Not only was he a more worthy host for Symby, he was more than worthy to have Felicia too.

Eddie stopped himself from looking for her. Instead he found Liz, still surrounded by a wall of armoured flesh. The guards didn't have the awkwardness of new hires about them, or the restlessness of those who'd only be around for a few more hours. These ones were used to shielding her by now.

He realised that they weren't there because of him, or because of what she suspected would happen tonight. They were here because of Osborn.

Because of what he'd had hiding in the basement, dead or alive.

"Flash, you… you saw Cletus Kasady's body." Eddie didn't frame it as a question so he couldn't deny it so easily. Flash was helping himself to a fresh glass and stuffing his face at the same time, happy to ignore Eddie up until then. Now he froze, as if whatever circuitry was powering his legs had just failed everywhere else in his body.

"Who told you that?"

"Your boss."

Flash followed his stare over at Liz. His suspicion didn't fade, but he pulled it back just enough. Maybe because there weren't many other people one could talk about Cletus Kasady with.

"Yeah." He gulped, though his throat was empty. "That's what she said it was, when I described it to her."

"What did it look like?"

"Not like a human. Then again, I doubt Kasady ever _was _human. Looked like there was some kind of… crust, or shell around him."

A Poison. Just like how he'd been the last time Eddie saw him. When he hoped it would the last time.

"When I used Anti-Venom on him," Flash went on, "it all started to crack apart. Like a rotten egg. But I was pushed out before I could see what was underneath."

"Apparently Liz told you to use the Anti-Venom?"

"I… I _thought _it was her. Looked like her, sounded like her, but… hell, it's hard to tell if the real Liz is ever really there." Flash looked over at her again, as if to confirm that she was still around. She glanced over too, and seeing two Venoms side-by-side seemed to be more than she could handle. Eddie watched as she swiftly relocated herself. And he wondered if she'd even told Flash the truth about why he had to give Symby up.

"...Has she ever told you how you lost the symbiote?"

Flash took a moment to look between her and him, as if judging who he was more willing to trust. "Does she know why?"

"Yes."

He chewed slowly. Finally, he swallowed and shook his head.

"No. She hasn't. But… not like it matters now. I can't take it back, so it's staying with you. Nothing I can do about it in good conscience."

"Cause you'd feel worse about killing it than me. " Eddie said it because he knew Flash wouldn't, and he couldn't blame him for thinking it. He didn't. It was exactly what he himself felt when he saw someone who deserved to die. And, if given the choice, he knew he'd sacrifice himself if it meant Symby could live without him. He was sure Flash felt the same about her. Maybe it was a common thread between symbiote hosts, tissue-deep, something wreathed between their DNA, between the molecules that mingled in their bloodstreams.

It was how he knew, back then, that the symbiote was better off without him. How he

knew that he couldn't force it out of Flash and back to him. So, instead he'd tried to kill him. Flash knew he couldn't do the same, but despite all his threats Eddie knew he would only kill him if he had no other choice.

Neither of them wanted to hurt Symby. Neither of them wanted to hurt Felicia, either. But unlike Eddie, Flash knew exactly how to avoid it. He was attuned like that. When they'd worked together against Lee Price, he'd been the first one to know when Symby's clone had been taken. Taken, warped, used and finally killed.

Yet Eddie hadn't even known where the clone was until it was gone. He hadn't even known that a part of his darling was with a teenager this entire time.

If he had known, he might have tried to kill her too.

"How's the kid?" he asked, as usual trying not to sound guilty. "The one that could shoot fire out her hands or whatever?"

Flash's eyebrows shot up. "Andi? She's… doing okay. Losing her symbiote shook her, but I don't think it had as much sentience as the original so she'll get over it. Why do you care?" Eyebrows still hovering there, above his suspicious stare, while Eddie thought of how to answer.

He remembered when he thought Symby was dead. A long, long time ago. How it tore him apart, how he'd struggled to go on without it.

Then again, the kid wasn't him and the clone wasn't Symby. So far all he knew, she had it even worse.

"Cause I know how hard it is to get over," he said, swallowing a surge of bile back down to the pit of his stomach.

"That makes two of us, then." Flash actually smiled just before he downed the rest of his glass, looking like he wished it was alcoholic after all. "Don't think that symbiote can protect you, though. It's not an excuse for anything, so don't even try and pull that bullshit on me. If I see it come out, if I see you try anything-"

"What if someone else tries something first?" Eddie cut in, to stop Symby squirming under the hard beam of suspicion focused on them both. And to stop Flash parroting the old 'lethal protector' lines. He was really sick of hearing them by now.

Flash recovered from the interruption now, pushing in even closer like he was really interrogating Eddie. "If you know something is gonna happen tonight, Brock, I strongly suggest that you let us know right now."

"Suggestion noted." Eddie just wanted to leave. Not just the table, he wanted to go back home. Forget the whole evening, even forget Felicia. He doubted she'd miss him anyway.

But if he tried to leave before Flash did, he risked pissing him off. Making him use Anti-Venom. He couldn't put Symby up for that kind of risk, so he'd have to wait him out until he gave up. But he'd forgotten just how stubborn Flash could be.

"I'm not interested in competing against you, alright?" Flash insisted with a weary sigh, tired from a lot more than just trying to stay upright on legs that weren't his own. "That isn't what this is about. I just want to keep these people, and that alien in you, safe from anything that might hurt them. It just so happens that you're the one most likely to do that."

As if Eddie didn't already know that. The boy scout didn't have to be so goddamn condescending about it. "Yeah, cause you're such a fucking saint," he huffed, reaching for glass number seven just for a good reason to keep his mouth closed.

"Careful," Flash said, "I think that's bordering on blasphemy."

Now he was just trying to piss him off. Eddie gave up his right to remain silent through gritted teeth.

"I don't know how much my symbiote told you about me when sh-" He caught himself just in time, or maybe it was Symby making him almost bite his tongue. "When _it_ was hitching a ride on you," he corrected through the taste of blood, "but don't you dare act like you know me, Flash. Cause you _don't._"

If it was up to Eddie, he would have had Venom's claws around his neck by now. Luckily, it wasn't up to him. Symby kept him safe from himself, though Flash seemed to know exactly what he was holding back from.

"And I thank God for that blissful ignorance every day." he told Eddie pointedly. "But I'll tell you what I _do _know. Whatever you end up doing tonight, whatever choice you make, you can't blame the symbiote for it. Whatever you do as Venom is all on _you_."

Yet more shit that Eddie already knew. Yet more need for Symby to restrain him. "Are you done?" he growled.

Flash had that disappointed look again, as if he actually had expectations of Eddie that weren't all violence and murder. In which case, it was his own fault if he was disappointed. "You're just lucky Liz isn't a big Spidey fan either, else he'd be the one here pissing you off right now. "

"And you're just lucky I'd feel bad beating up a guy without legs."

"Sure, you keep telling yourself that. Say hi to our other mutual friend for me."

Eddie didn't watch him finally fuck off. He only knew he was gone when Symby released him.

"You're not also talking to him, are you?" he asked over his shoulder. For all he knew, Symby could have been begging Flash to get her out of Eddie the whole time.

"_**No. I can only talk to you and Felicia."**_ Eddie didn't quite believe her, but if Symby knew then she didn't show offence. "_**Speaking of her, she seems to be looking for you."**_

'_Her and me both.' _He briefly debated over downing one last useless glass, before he decided to just take it over with him. Felicia had an audience of two that she seemed desperate for any excuse to escape from, and she kept craning her neck to try and find one. When she saw Eddie, her eyes lit up to match the stolen jewels on her neck and he was hit by the realisation of long it had been since anyone looked at him like that.

"Ah, there you are!" Felicia met him halfway to drag him over, while he was still reeling from the suckerpunch to his chest cavity. She introduced him with far too much eagerness as he tipped back his glass.

"This is Edward, my husband."

At first he was annoyed at the Edward, not needing yet another reminder of Dad that night, but then he was almost snorting his drink out through his nose in blind shock. By the time he recovered from the coughing fit, her hanger-ons had excused themselves.

"Husband…?" He would have at least liked some warning before this sudden marriage. Faced by his wide eyes that demanded explanation, Felicia only shrugged.

"I kinda like the sound of Felicia Brock after all."

"Now I know you're making fun of me." When he actually was a husband, Annie hadn't even taken his name. He hadn't asked why, but he always assumed it was because she didn't just want to be 'the reporter's wife', especially not when their careers were so often at odds. Fair enough for her... but it hadn't stopped him wishing she had. Just so he'd have proof that she was really his wife once upon a time.

...He did actually like the sound of Felicia Brock, though. But he didn't like _how_ much he liked it.

"Only a little," Felicia admitted, oblivious to the blush that Symby was doing her best to try and smother. "I'm just sick of everyone around here trying to flirt with me whenever I go up and talk to them. This will at least limit that to those who don't care if a woman is spoken for, so I won't care if I have to hurt them."

A system that Eddie had to respect. He was sure she was used to using it. "Well, you did make yourself a bit of a target for it…"

Felicia fixed him with a glare that he knew was coming yet was still utterly unprepared for. "Am I supposed to take that as a compliment?"

Eddie chose his next words very carefully, just like he was picking them for publication in his obituary. "What I… meant to say was that you can hardly blame them for being so attracted."

Felicia narrowed her glare, but dulled its edge with an appeased smile. "That's better."

He'd managed to avoid her wrath from his loose lips, but it was only a matter of time before he said something dumb again. Something even worse that he wouldn't be able to take back. And even if he kept a lid on it, Symby would try to force it out.

'_Just ask her,' _she'd said.

'_Or I'll ask her for you,' _she hadn't said, but surely meant.

It was the first threat Eddie had heard that night that he was actually worried about, and it came from his own head. Not from his Other, not from an outside voice he could pin the blame on. Just as Flash had said, it was all on him.

"How much more of this do we need to do before we can go home?" Eddie asked. At home, at least, he wouldn't have to worry about saying things he'd regret. He wouldn't have to worry about thinking so much about her that it was impossible not to be aroused.

"Until we find someone willing to talk," she answered. "Hood's people likely won't make a move until the end of the evening, when all the donations have been collected. So we have until then to get as much information as we can."

That meant at least a few more hours, assuming she was right about when the Hood would launch his plan. And if she wasn't… they might not be prepared to stop it from succeeding.

And if it succeeded, people would surely get hurt. People like Liz and Flash and the men who didn't care whether or not Felicia was really married and those here because they had money to spend on something other than themselves and...

They weren't all innocents. But they didn't deserve to be pawns in whatever game Hood and Osborn were playing. They didn't deserve to be bait, just so he and Felicia could sit back and see what they'd be sacrificed for.

...It was time to try and redeem yourself, Eddie. Be the hero that Flash never had to try so hard to be, so said the voice in his head that wasn't quite Symby but also wasn't quite him.

"Look, Felicia." He grasped her shoulder, turning her around before she could find herself another target in the crowd. "I think we should just go and tell Liz that the criminal underworld has infested her party."

Her eyes narrowed again. No humour in them this time. "Why?"

"Because whatever they're gonna do tonight, chances are very likely that people are gonna get hurt. If we can stop that from happening, I feel like we have a duty to."

"We'll be wasting our chance at stopping something even bigger." She was starting to hiss in her efforts to keep her voice down. Or maybe that was just her claws coming out for real.

As stubborn as Flash. No wonder they'd gotten together.

"We don't know if this gathering thing _is_ any bigger," Eddie argued right back. "We don't even know if it's worth looking into."

"If Hood is involved in any way, then it is."

"How do you know that it's even happening? For all we know, Shocker could have been feeding you bullshit on purpose and his jitters tonight are just to sell it home. I mean, who's really dumb enough to just blurt out something like that?"

"Trust me, he _is _that dumb."

Of course he was, this was Shocker they were talking about after all. Eddie sighed, not quite approaching defeat but close enough that he knew this would be a last stand of his questionable morals against Felicia's own.

"Well, _if _it's happening and _if _it's a big deal, unless you spike the champagne or something there's no way any of these goons are spilling anything about it. Especially not if they think their boss is really killing anyone off with loose lips."

Felicia pouted, but for once it wasn't cute. This was a full-on 'it's my party and I'll sneak around if I want to' look. "Well I'm not leaving here without finding at least one-!"

Her voice was rising in volume, but suddenly they both saw that there was no-one around to be bothered by it. The crowd, who had been mingling all over the lobby-turned-ballroom, was now migrating to the very centre. Almost everyone was in pairs, and there were stray notes from strings being tuned that carried over the sound of heels tapping on the floor. Felicia realised what was happening a second before Eddie did, and so started pulling him over to everyone else before he could think to resist.

"The dance is starting," she said. "Come on."

"Absolutely fucking not." He was fully prepared to turn his shoes into Venom claws if it meant he could dig himself into the floor. Yet Felicia, proving how much stronger she was than she looked, just kept dragging him behind her like he was just a sack of symbiote goo.

...Which he pretty much was, now that he thought about it.

"We need to blend in, Eddie," she was saying while he was left trying to remind himself of how to break free. "Just relax, I'll take it lead."

They were already at the edge of the people when Eddie finally managed to free himself from her grip, wrenching his arm out of the manicured nails that might have well have been the steel claws on her gloves.

"Felicia, I _do not_ dance," he hissed. "At all. For any reason, for anyone." Not even for you, he just managed to stop himself from saying.

Felicia seemed to doubt just how uncooperative he was willing to be. She rolled her eyes, but didn't try to seize him again. Instead she crossed her arms over her chest as the last stragglers streamed past her to join the rest of the guests.

"Alright then, I'll make a deal with you. You give me one dance. If I still haven't heard anything about the Hood when it's over, you can go right up to Liz and I won't stop you."

Eddie took a few seconds to tell if she was being serious. Not only was she serious, she was challenging his stubbornness with her own. Or, just showing that she was willing to compromise so long as he was. Proving just how much of a jackass he was, too.

Eddie sighed once again. This time, it was definitely from defeat. "One dance?"

"Just one. I promise." She offered her hand, and he had no choice but to take it.

He never had a choice but to take it.

At least she took the lead for both of them.

"You're too stiff."

With his hand on the small of her back, the rules of the ballroom and the proximity of better dancers around them forcing their bodies together, he might have been worried there was a double meaning in that scold. But he knew exactly what she meant.

"That usually happens when you just want to go home," he groaned, barely able to move even if he wanted to. Grace in running on the rooftops and through the alleyways translated to nothing but clumsiness everywhere else, especially with someone as big as he was.

But as Felicia pulled him all around the floor, not at all phased by his heaviness, she seemed convinced of another reason for it entirely.

"Oh, Eddie… you're scared."

"I'm not _scared_," he scoffed through a stiff jaw. "I'm nervous. I mean…" Dammit, he'd already made that excuse tonight. Symby was there to remind him of it, forcing some lightness in his limbs to make Felicia's efforts a little easier. Both of them cornering him in a silent interrogation the way only dangerous women could.

"Yeah," he persisted. "I'm nervous. Not scared. Two very different things."

Felicia looked up at him. Her heels only elevated her so much, so her disbelieving gaze was half hidden by her eyelids. That didn't make it any less effective. "You killed a man three nights ago with your bare hands and now you're scared of a little dancing?"

He didn't bother correcting her that time, but being reminded of that only made him tense even more. "Everyone keeps staring at me."

"No one's staring at you." Felicia laughed like he'd just said there was a monster under his bed. "If anyone's looking this way, it's most likely because of me."

"That doesn't help. They're still looking _this_ way." Eddie couldn't stop skimming his eyes over everyone around him, judging them as they did him, but they moved in and out of view too quickly for him to track. As if they _knew _he was onto them.

"Here. This'll help you relax."

Eddie noticed that Felicia had dropped his hand, and found her holding up something in offering. An earbud, its wires disappearing into her dress. He knew what to expect when he took it, but hearing the same song that reminded him he didn't always have to be angry still managed to surprise him. He'd almost forgotten what it sounded like, but that made hearing it again all the sweeter. And even though it was only in one ear, he could still give himself fully to it. One full of song, the other full of Felicia's voice.

"Better?" she asked, and he saw she'd taken the other bud for herself.

"Much. But how're you gonna eavesdrop with only one ear?"

She shrugged. "I can multitask."

It sounded more like she didn't mind so much if she lost her end of the deal. Maybe she was proud enough of dragging him into this with her, making him indulge her. Proving to herself that he was just as vulnerable to a pretty face as anyone else. It would have explained why she was grinning, once he finally started reacting to her rather than simply letting himself be puppeted. It helped that she was dancing to her song rather than anything else around them.

"You're quite good at this when you let yourself be," Felicia praised. "You sure Symby isn't doing most of the work?"

She might have been, for all Eddie knew. She was at least keeping his feet from trampling all over Felicia's. But he could tell his moves were all his own, and for once it wasn't a bad thing. If he was anywhere else, he actually might have been enjoying himself.

"What about you?" he asked. "Not got some Tinkerer toy in your shoes helping you out?"

"I was forced into a lot of useless lessons as a kid. Ballroom dancing just so happened to not be as useless as the rest."

"Ah, you were one of _those_ fake-rich kids." The kind with a little more money than everyone else but not quite enough to buy their way higher in life, so the best they could do was fooling themselves that they were in with the snobs. Eddie remembered meeting more than a few in his childhood. The kind Dad warned him to not spend too much time around, back when he pretended to care.

Felicia smiled in place of nodding. "Spoiled rotten, no concept of hardship, micro-managed down to what hair ties I was allowed to wear. Simply the worst."

"I've seen worse. Hell, I've _been_ worse."

"I doubt that."

"Oh yeah? Am I just too uncivilized for you to believe that?"

"You just don't seem like the type who was spoiled."

He could tell Felicia had meant it as a compliment. But he couldn't tell if he was better off letting her believe it.

Then again, he never liked people making assumptions about him. And those were all she could make if she didn't know the truth.

"...I was, at first," he admitted. "I guess Dad figured the more money he spent on me, the more it'd make up for how much he couldn't stand me. That still wasn't enough for me, though."

"You ended up taking what you couldn't get?" Felicia's eyes flickered so much closer than usual to his own. There was a gentle understanding in them that he wasn't prepared for.

"Something like that. I…" He sighed, focusing on her mouth to spare himself from anything else lurking in her eyes that he didn't deserve. "Well, basically I thought stealing shit from other kids was how to go about making friends with them."

He knew how pathetic it sounded, and purposefully missed Felicia's initial reaction. He didn't know if he would have preferred approval or pity from her.

"And how'd you figure that?" she asked, with neither in her tone. Instead there was only a bare-faced sincerity.

"I dunno, I… guess I thought if I was the one who found it, they'd be grateful and end up liking me. Course, I don't think it ever really worked." Even back then he knew how hard it was for him to be liked.

Felicia was silent, and all he could hear was her song underneath the sound of her breathing. Then she spoke.

"Well, Eddie, I'm impressed." It was by way of an apology, because it was the one good thing to come out of it for him. "You were a thief long before I even started."

"Not like I'm proud of it," Eddie muttered back. "Especially not after… the accident." The word tripped over his tongue.

"Accident?"

He'd already gone deep enough into old wounds to be picking at the stitches. Might as well tear the rest of them out and let the blood flow. Symby could just heal them over once the bleeding stopped.

"I took a neighbour's cat once," he started, not quite looking at her but not quite looking away. "It got out, and I went running after it across the street… right in front of a car. When I came back home after six months in hospital, I found out all the bills had bankrupted Dad. So… that was yet another reason for him to hate me."

As if he ever needed any more of them.

"And you think that was a good reason?" Felicia asked, a lot sooner than he was expecting her to be saying anything. As a result, his answer came out a lot more honest than anything he'd ever said before.

"...I think I never should've survived it."

"Don't say things like that, Eddie." The hand on his shoulder tightened, the nails digging into the symbiote, driving a double dose of concern deep into his skin. Felicia wasn't smiling anymore.

"But it's true. Maybe you haven't heard this, Felicia, but… I'm not a good person." That was putting it lightly for no one's sake but his own. He wasn't always sure if he was even a person anymore.

"Maybe not to some people," she said. "But you're trying to be one. And I think that makes you better than most of them."

How could she sound so sincere about it? She wasn't lying just to make him feel better, because why would she? But still, she was saying exactly what he wanted to hear. It made him suspicious all over again. Maybe he was just that desperate to believe that everyone else was right about him, so he wouldn't have to bother with proving them wrong anymore.

"I feel like I gave up on trying a long time ago," he said quietly.

"If that was true," Felicia persisted, still gripping his shoulder, "then there'd still be one more killer on the streets tonight. Maybe even here right now."

"There _is_ a killer here right now, and he's probably killed even more people than any of these Hood guys." He couldn't tell who was who amidst the press of spinning bodies, but he knew few of them had the kind of kill count he did.

"Do you see the people you've killed as 'people'?" Felicia asked.

"Do you?"

She cocked an eyebrow, before pulling them both back down to Earth. "Put it this way, Eddie. 8-Ball was a creep. No one who's mourning him will be doing it for very long. He was a person, sure… but sometimes persons have to die for the good of everyone else. And sometimes they die for no reason. Good or bad, it doesn't matter. Just like I told you in the graveyard."

He hadn't quite accepted it back then. But now, now it seemed a lot more palatable for some reason. Either because it was right, or just because it was convenient enough for him.

"I hate that I agree with you," he said as a middle ground between either possibility.

"Would you rather you disagreed so you could keep beating yourself up over it?"

"I just… feel like a hypocrite. Judging you for stealing when I did it long before you. Answering murder with even more murder." He didn't just feel like a hypocrite, he _knew _he was one. Maybe it was his Catholic side still screaming at him after all this time.

"Just remember what I said," Felicia offered. "Give yourself rules, and stick to them. Make your own moral code, and you'll find a way to stay afloat above most people you'll come across."

Rules, she said. Eddie had followed enough of those in and out of church, yet they didn't at all change where his life was heading.

"You sound so sure about that," he huffed.

"Maybe because I was once one of those people," she suggested.

"I hadn't noticed."

"We didn't really run into each other back then. Just as well. You'd have killed me."

Another thing she sounded so sure about. Either because she thought he would have wanted to finish the job he started years ago, or because she was once really that bad. He'd only heard stories about what was going on when he wasn't Venom, or Anti-Venom, or dying of cancer, so he couldn't be sure.

"If it makes you feel better," Eddie tried, "I'd have had a hard time doing it without a symbiote."

"I'm sure you would have found a way," she said. "You're determined like that."

It was another compliment that he wasn't sure if he wanted to take.

"...No," he answered. "I wouldn't have hurt you." The first time he had done so haunted his conscience enough. He still wasn't convinced that she'd forgiven him for it.

"Why's that?" she asked, as if it wasn't so obvious why.

"I don't think most men could. You're just…"

He didn't know what to say. Even if he had hours to prepare, a draft already written up for him, an outline that only needed filling in, he wouldn't have known where to even start with the woman entwined in his arms.

But she seemed convinced that he did.

"Come on," she eased, raising both their hands to the left side of her head. "I've got one ear wide open for you."

Eddie scoffed to himself. Whatever she was expecting, she was doubtless going to be disappointed. "What can I say about you that you haven't already heard a thousand times from a hundred other men?"

Then he was yanked forward. Not by his symbiote, not by any subliminal urge in either of their instincts. This was Felicia closing what little distance remained between them. She pulled him down so her head was in the crook of his neck, her mouth against his empty ear and his against hers.

"I don't want to hear it from them," she told him. "I want to hear it from you."

In his other ear, their song was coming to an end. There was nothing to muffle his confession when it finally came out; not because Symby forced it out or because he felt like he had no other choice.

He knew exactly what choice he was making. He was choosing her. And he knew he was choosing right, maybe for the first time in his life.

"I think you're the most beautiful woman I've ever met," he told her in a whisper.

Against all expectations he dared to have, when he angled to see her face she actually looked surprised to hear it.

"...Here I thought you only kept me around for my brains," she whispered back.

"That too." He saw his hand still on her back, holding her steady. He didn't think he'd be so close to her tonight. He didn't think she'd be the one clinging to him, her arms around his shoulders and head burrowed over his shoulder. Symby reached out to her, sinking under her weight, but Eddie was the one holding her. Telling her that it was okay to not want to let go.

"Just… a few more seconds." She breathed against his neck, so warm and close. Eddie had forgotten how warm other people could be.

"Take as long as you need."

He felt her nod once into his neck, sighing deeply against his skin. Then mumbling into it.

"...Sandalwood," she noted.

"The, uh… other soaps were running low," he excused, but Felicia didn't look upset when she pulled back. She stroked her thumb across his cheek, lingering it across his bottom lip in a mirror of how his hand trailed down the back of her neck. He hoped she could feel the same sparks on her skin that he felt on his.

"It suits you," she said, barely having to whisper with how close they were as Eddie breathed her in. Symby was there, as she always was, a constant presence behind his eyes. But she was just watching it all come together. He was breathing by himself, leaning in by himself, holding Felicia's head as they both came together, knowing this kiss would be all his own.

...But then he heard the gunshot.

The sound echoed off the high ceiling, scattering all around him, impossible to tell where it was coming from. That wasn't what he focused on, though.

There was a lump; not in his stomach, but against it. A dent in his gut. He looked down, and saw his suit deformed around the bullet that would have ripped through him if not for Symby.

But for it to have reached him… it had to tear through someone else first.

"Felicia...?"

She was staring up at him, her mouth still an inch from his own. Staring, but not seeing. Her eyes were too full of pain for her to see anything. Through the black and white of her dress, red was soaking through. He couldn't even feel her breath.

"_Felicia_!"

She was stiff in his arms, like she was already a corpse, before she went limp. Before she collapsed. Symby grabbed her before Eddie found the strength to, shielding her in a cocoon where the damage was already done.

There were more gunshots. People were screaming. Eddie didn't care.

But Venom did.

"**Everyone get back!" **Venom cut a circle around him with a swipe of his claws, and anyone lingering too close was wise enough to get out of the way. His other arm held Felicia, cradling her against his chest while she wheezed and trembled.

"Eddie…" She was pale, her skin blending into her hair as it lay plastered across her damp face. Reaching for him through the symbiote's grip, reminding him that she wasn't dead yet.

Yet.

'_I'm here, Felicia. I'm here,' _Eddie was trying to say it to her, trying to take control of Venom's jaw as he roared and snapped to keep everyone and anyone else away. But Symby wasn't even in control, not entirely. She was just as panicked as everyone else around them. And she was screaming, shrieking so loud in his brain that if she let it out loud it would have damaged her.

"_**Eddie. Eddie, Carnage is here! Red. Carnage. The symbiote. My child. It's here. He's here! She's here!"**_

'_Calm down, Symby, please-!'_

"_**Red is here, Eddie! We need to get out!"**_

She was right. He could feel it too, the… God, the way his skin was crawling under his Other, the chills in his bones and sensation of knives scraping down his spine. There was only one creature, on Earth or off it, that could set either of them off like that.

But that was secondary. They had to get Felicia out. They had to get her to safety, and then… only then, could they worry about whoever else was pressing in around them. That would have been the ideal plan, but just as Venom was pulling her close in preparation for a leap-

"**Hold it right there, Brock!"**

He recognised the echo that seemed to come from nowhere, a complete opposite of his own snarls. He whirled on Agent Anti-Venom with one at the ready, staring down the muzzle of his gun. He almost thought it was the same one that shot Felicia, snapped out of it just a second before he took the arm off the shoulder joint. But the jolt of rational thought didn't stop his throat from ripping out a threat.

"**Get out of our way, Flash, before we take off your other limbs!"**

Anti-Venom wasn't phased. He didn't even wipe away the drool that Venom splattered all over him. He was busy holding a catatonic undesirable off the ground, someone Eddie recognised as belonging to the Hood just before he was flung to the floor. The others had apparently taken the gunfire as a signal to dive into chaos. They wrestled with innocents and bodyguards all around the ballroom while scrabbling for whatever they could grab before they were taken down. No one with a gun that he could see, though. No obvious sign of Carnage yet either, but it was hard to tell who was who with so many frantically running bodies. Anti-Venom struck out his freed fist to dispatch one that came pelting behind him, not taking his hooded eyes off Venom for a second.

"**I'm under orders, Venom. Same ones I warned you about. I'm not letting you leave with all this shit going down right now. Especially not with her! For all we know, you're the one who started all-!"**

The rifle was likely loaded with vials of AV. That didn't stop Venom from grabbing the muzzle and shoving it down, so it aimed at the bloodstained floor tiles and so his maw was close enough to bit his opposite's head off.

"**Listen very carefully to us, boy scout. She has been shot in the back, with a bullet that was meant for us." **As proof, Venom held the caught shell up on a tendril in front of Anti-Venom's inscrutable mask. "**Do we look like we have any guns on us?"**

Black eyes narrowed at his white glare, as Anti-Venom wrenched his weapon back under his control. "**Well… no, but-"**

"**And do we look like we have time to waste arguing with the likes of you when she is closer to dying with every second that passes?!" **

She wasn't gasping as much anymore. They'd managed to contain her bleeding, with the symbiote rerouting the blood she was losing back in through her cells, but they needed to go somewhere safe before they could fix what was wrong with her insides.

Flash was only just realising it now, taking in the thick symbiote padding over Felicia's stomach that masked the gore beneath.

"**Shit…"** He shouldered his weapon. "**Hand her over, I can try and heal-"**

"No!" Felicia coughed, blood spluttering past her lips to coat Venom's chest in a fine mist of red as she grabbed his wrist. "No.." She wheezed once more. "No Anti-Venom… in me..."

Both Venom and Anti-Venom looked down at her in shock.

"**But… Felicia, your organs are probably-!"**

"I said _no_," she hissed through her teeth, just before a shriek of agony forced its way past them as well. The awful sound and the fact that it was coming from her almost made Symby drop her in equal pain. Neither she nor Eddie knew why Felicia was so against Anti-Venom healing (in any other situation they might have even been glad of it), but if it was what she insisted then they had to obey. Not even Flash could make himself could go against her wishes, even if it meant risking her life.

"**Fine."** Anti-Venom reluctantly stepped back from her. "**Get her to a hospital, then."**

"_**No hospital!" **_Symby shrieked back in Venom's skull. "_**They'll recognise her. They'll take her from us!"**_

"**They can't help her," **Venom argued, and he was terrified that he was right. "**We can."**

Agent Anti-Venom scoffed, but someone on the upper balconies distracted him before he could properly voice his disbelief. He shot a white bullet to stun them just as Venom reached out a black wall in front of them both, to deflect the second steel bullet that was coming in. It was over in a second, and in that second Venom saw Liz being bundled across the balcony by her experienced meatshields. He was too hurt to feel angry at her for leaving when he couldn't.

"**But why **_**would**_ **you?" ** Agent Anti-Venom was glaring at him again. "**Why is she so important?"**

'_You should know why,' _Eddie wanted to say.

"**You're not the only one who cares for her," **was all he did say, shielding her head with his palm, his claws in her damp hair. "**We just need to get out of here."**

He was prepared to fight his way out. He was more than prepared to fight his way past this soldier, at least. Felicia was barely stirring against him now, but her lips were moving. A warning leaking out between her agonised moans.

"Eddie… b… behind…"

There, near the window. Someone he'd managed to forget about until now. The Eel wasn't in his oiled costume this time, but his gauntlets were recognisable enough and fully operational. He was rubbing them together to kickstart the static charge that would fry all four of them.

Luckily, Anti-Venom saw him too. Eel was so focused on getting revenge on one Venom that he didn't even seem to notice the other coming at him until he had to duck to avoid his punch. The real Venom took a chance on the diversion to close the distance in a leap, bracing Felicia tight against him, and grabbed Eel by the back of the neck to slam him to the ground in a one-handed stranglehold.

"**Your move, creep," **he snarled over his face, knowing that his next wise move would be to fall unconscious.

Agent Anti-Venom didn't intervene, or even make Venom release Eel from his grip until he was sure he was out. All he said was, in almost the same tone as Felicia,

"**RoboCop?"**

"**It's a good movie." **The statement came out as nothing more than a reflex action from Venom's vocal cords.

Anti-Venom leaned over to check the wide window. "**I was more of a Terminator kid myself."**

"**Of course you were." **Venom was trying to remember where the window would have him landing if he crashed through it. The entrance was a lost cause clogged with heaving bodies just as desperate to escape. Then again, he supposed it was poetic that he'd have to save her life by using her own methods of getting in and out.

"**Police are coming."** Just as Anti-Venom said it, the sirens started wailing loud enough to almost make Symby peel back from Felicia in similar pain. Almost. "**I can keep them off your back while you get her out."** He readied his gun in testament to that. Whether it was because he actually believed Venom could save her or because he was just willing to give him the chance, Eddie felt gratitude oh so briefly chase away the fury boiling away in his blood. In better circumstances, Symby might have said 'I told you so'.

"**Thank you." **Venom didn't bother checking to see if the window would open wide enough. It was much faster to just break through it. He perched on the edge, constantly checking that Felicia was still breathing, however shallow her lungs felt, and remembered what else was lurking in the chaos behind him.

"**Flash… Carnage is here somewhere."**

With that mask over his face, Anti-Venom's reaction was invisible. His shoulders didn't even sag. "**Somewhere. Of course he is. I'll deal with it, Brock. Just get her somewhere safe."**

Venom nodded and made his escape while he still could, knowing only one place good enough for her. As he raced for her apartment, his two halves could do nothing but scream and weep within him.


	23. Night ?

Felicia had taken bullets before. Bigger ones than that which had crashed through her spine and ripped through her belly, leaving behind a seed of agony that spread all through like a weed. But she didn't remember the others leaving her feeling so… cold.

Even though there was warmth all around her, drowning her like her own blood as it escaped her in rivers, she still felt so cold.

Not long after she felt her legs falling away from her, she found that she could no longer see. She was losing strength so rapidly that she couldn't even keep her eyes open. Even less time after that, the blood in her lungs was too much for her to speak through. All she could do was gurgle, and bleed, and ache, and listen.

Everything sounded like it was coming through water.

"Symby, you need to fix her."

"_**I… Eddie, I don't know if I can."**_

The water in her brain, feeling like it was leaking out of her ears. She felt like she was floating on it, on the edge of an abyss, forever just seconds away from being dragged beneath with nothing that she could do to stay above it.

"You have to. Please, you're the only chance she has, I… please, darling."

"_**But what about… what happened the last time?"**_

"We just have to take that risk."

"_**I don't want to hurt her."**_

"She's already hurt. And she'll only get worse if we don't do anything."

"_**If this goes wrong…"**_

"Then I'll still love you. But please… try. Just… do what you can. Please."

The voices stopped, and the gap was flooded with the gurgling deep in her throat, down where her heart was rolling about loose in her ribcage. There were claws both cradling and stabbing through her head, and the abyss soaked in through her skin.

Heavy. Tight. Burying her in warm, squeezing the ice from her veins. She could taste all the blood still left in her body. Bubbles popped against her ears, her bones cracking as they were rearranged to better fit the mess all around them.

Symby didn't speak again as she seized her in black, but Eddie did.

"...I'm sorry, Felicia."

…

…She didn't expect to wake up in her own bed.

She didn't expect to wake up at all.

"_**Don't move. Your arteries are still knitting back together."**_ Symby was giving the warning the second Felicia tried to open her eyes. She sounded closer than usual.

Stubborn as she was, Felicia only ignored the caution as far as persisting in prying her eyelids apart. It took some seconds for her to realise the black all around her wasn't from symbiote skin. She recognised the stolen dress hanging over her dressing screen, still sparkling despite how it was torn and bloodied all across the chest (Felicia was faintly grateful that she stashed the Anti-Venom vial in a pocket closer to her legs). Then she recognised the furniture that slowly moulded themselves out of the dark in her bedroom, and though she figured she was in her bed she couldn't feel mattress beneath her or sheets above. In fact, she couldn't feel much of anything except a steady pulse of warmth across her skin, as if she was lying just out of reach of a roaring fire that was still smouldering in her brain.

After what she remembered feeling last, she was grateful for the numbness.

"What… the hell happened?" She licked her lips, but her tongue felt like old leather, battered like her voice as it croaked out.

"_**You were shot,"**_ Symby helpfully informed her.

"Yeah, I figured that much..." More than her surroundings, she recognised the throbbing lodged in the small of her back, far deeper than a muscle cramp. Bullets felt the same no matter where they hit.

But that wasn't the only thing that felt familiar.

Symby wasn't just covering her this time. She was in her bloodstream, her bones, her eyes and teeth and nails and cells...

She was _bonded_ to her. Sitting heavy and still in her skull and lungs, like an infection trying to avoid being seen and flushed out. That's what the symbiote that Lee Price had forced onto her felt like. That's what she remembered from it, at least as much as she was willing to. As much as she could perceive, when her every thought and sense was smothered by Maniac's.

It wasn't the first time she'd felt invaded. She'd just hoped it would be the last.

Then again, if she had to choose between leaving her body to fix itself or having some help from the stars, she knew which one she'd pick. Regardless of how deep the help had to go.

"_**Luckily the bullet passed right through you,"**_ Symby went on, as the throb in Felicia's back and the sensation of being violated faded slightly. "_**So there's no shrapnel damage. We still don't know for sure who did it. But…"**_

There was a growl, similar to the kind that Felicia's stomach would make. "_**We know Osborn was involved. Osborn, and Carnage."**_

If she was in any better state, Felicia would have wanted to know every grisly detail; why Osborn had chosen now to strike, how the hell Carnage fit into everything.

But as she was, she could only groan. None of it was what she wanted to know at that moment anyway. There was only one question that was worth the pain of dredging it out of her throat.

"...Where's Eddie?"

"_**In the next room."**_ Symby shifted a coil placed under Felicia's head, and she was aware of the alien cushioning her skull, moulding to support and comfort it better than any pillow could. "_**He's… praying for you."**_

For some reason, hearing that surprised Felicia. Of all the people she could think of that might believe praying for anything would work, Eddie definitely wasn't one of them.

"He knows you can fix me, though," Felicia said. "Not much to be worrying about."

Symby went silent, so silent that, for some long few seconds, all Felicia could hear was the complaints from her broken body; her bones still shivering from the cracks that reverberated through the marrow, her tight breaths wheezing out through the tighter confines what were definitely not her own lungs, her blood still chugging along through her veins despite everything. Eventually, Symby let herself bubble up through the dissonance, however reluctantly and regrettably. As if she was just as hesitant to be bonded as her current host was.

"_**I've only done this once before,"**_ she revealed. "_**It didn't end well."**_

Before Felicia could try, as usual, indulging her curiosity against all warning signs, her eyes flickered. The lids twitched, as if something was trying to claw out of her iris and her body was desperate to keep it caged, and when she blinked she saw the silhouette. The same one she'd seen just a few nights before, while lying on her bed just as she was now. With the same word, the same name tangled up in the noise from her neurons.

But this time, she didn't lose it. This time, Symby let her hear it.

_Annie..._

When it faded away, she didn't ask about it. She had a fairly good idea now of why Eddie was so worried. He'd lost someone to the symbiote. And whatever Annie was to him, whatever happened to her, it was clear that he was terrified of it happening to Felicia too.

God, he actually cared about her. Why did that scare her so much? Even more than the prospect of lead poisoning or infection or-

"_**Felicia."**_ Symby interrupted her flare of panic, perhaps sensing how her heart rate spiked. Just as it did before she collapsed in Eddie's arms, falling away from his lips whether she wanted to be near them or not.

"_**While I was repairing the damage,"**_ Symby went on, either purposefully oblivious or fully aware of what Felicia was thinking, "_**I had to go into your mind. To make sure your brain was intact."**_

Felicia gulped in understanding, since it was less painful than trying to nod. "Find anything interesting in there?"

"_**I saw… something."**_ Symby seemed to gulp as well, the cover of her body rippling once like the disturbed surface of a stagnant pond. "_**I'm going to ask you about it. It's going to make you uncomfortable, but I'm still going to ask because I have to."**_

Felicia forced air out through her nose in a noble attempt of a laugh. "At least you're honest about it."

Then Symby name-dropped the bomb, and it was like having another bullet ripping through her.

"_**It's about Ryan."**_

In a way, Felicia was expecting it. After all, what else did she have locked away in her conscience that Symby would be so cautious about?

What else had she been dreading hearing, ever since she learned Symby could go more than skin deep without even touching her?

"How deep did you go to get that name?" Felicia asked, feeling her voice scrape against her throat as it threatened to close entirely. Even though she had the dim realisation that needing to breathe was not so necessary right now, there was nothing to stop the tide of panic and bile that surged up from the pit of her patched-together stomach.

Panic. Memories.

Freshman year. Trusting him.

Panic. Disgust.

"_**Not very**_**," **Symby answered from miles away outside of her head. "_**Your dreams leave you open.**_"

Him on top of her. Holding her down while she couldn't even move. Couldn't even fight back.

Disgust. Vomit.

Waking up alone. Waking up, every single morning afterwards, wanting to kill him. Hours spent in the campus gym; each punching bag etched with the blurry details of his face and each treadmill with his body waiting at the end of it for a final strike, her head full of the many ways he would die and full of trauma-bleached hair as every strand was slowly drained of its colour, just as she was drained of the will to do anything other than kill_. _

_Kill._

_**Kill him.**_

...When she remembered those emotions now, she wasn't sure what she regretted more. Not being ready to face him soon enough, or wasting all that time on trying to force the justice that ended up never coming for her.

"Then you'll know why I haven't spoken about him since he died," she said numbly.

"_**Died**_**,"** Symby repeated, "_**but not at your hand.**_"

There wasn't any judgement in the unspoken question that echoed around Felicia's skull. If anything, it was soothing compared to everything else crammed in there. Even so, she knew it was coming and just wanted to get it over with.

"You gonna lecture me for wanting to be a killer that young?"

"_**Not at all. He would have deserved it, and more."**_

Other than a twitch of her eyebrows, Felicia's surprise didn't show through. "Then why are you bringing him up?"

"_**Because you're scared Eddie will be like him."**_

Of course she was scared. She knew it, but hearing it told so bluntly... still managed to shock her somehow.

Maye the bullet had torn through a lot more than just her skin. All the walls she'd spent so long building and strengthening and defending, pulled down without her even realising they were gone. They'd been eroded before, first by Peter and then Flash, each of them chipping away at what little she was willing to give them until they finally decided that whatever else lay beyond her guard wasn't worth the effort.

But Eddie… Eddie just hadn't need to work as hard at it. He probably didn't even realise he was taking them down, just as she never realised that he was.

Not until she accepted that she was in love.

Felicia sighed through her teeth, utterly unable to pull them apart. Terrified of what would come out if she did.

But if she didn't let it out, it would do a lot more damage inside her than any bullet.

"...I'm scared _any_ man will be like him," Felicia confessed, and for the first time since she came back to life she was okay with not breathing. The fear, the way her lungs used to deflate whenever she even thought of being with a man, with Peter or Flash or… yes, even Eddie.

It was why she flirted so much. Putting herself out there. Some men didn't like a woman being so forward. Others at least knew that they wouldn't have to force her if they just played along with her.

For a long time, it was the only way for her to feel like she was control again. Yet after all that she still ended up here, cocooned in thinly-veiled agony and her own helplessness, at the mercy of something she could never hope of understanding no matter how hard she or anyone else tried to.

Eddie's feelings for her.

Eddie's symbiote.

Though… maybe the barrage on her brain, the way her heart and eyes were squeezed until there was nothing left to ooze out… maybe it was all an extension of Symby's mercy.

Maybe this was part of the healing.

Picking at old wounds until they split open, so she could try and mend them properly this time.

"_**You haven't seen Eddie's mind like I have,"**_ Symby told her, firming under Felicia's head to remind her that she was still there. "_**But you could. If you'd like to."**_

Felicia wasn't sure what Symby meant, but she imagined something similar to the glimpses of Annie she was allowed to see. Something similar, but much more intense.

"...Would he be okay with that?" Felicia asked. It was one thing having her own mind prodded at and vivisected, but something felt very wrong about seeing the autopsy of someone else's head. Especially someone like Eddie.

"_**He's already let you in deeper than any other human before," **_Symby answered. As if Felicia had already seen most of what she had to show.

Again, Felicia didn't nod. She didn't need to. When Symby sensed she was ready, she showed her everything.

And Felicia saw it. Everything.

She saw, finally, who Ann was. His wife- she never even knew he'd been married- his partner for… how many years? She couldn't tell, but it wasn't for long. Something happened, and suddenly she wasn't there anymore.

He was still young back then. Not much older than her when she first became Black Cat. She was breaking into prisons while he was dealing with divorce paperwork.

She saw… things she didn't want to see. Him trying so hard to die. Hating himself for wanting to, first praying for reasons to stay alive and then, in just another glance, praying for permission to kill himself. Face wet with tears, twisted in pain that she could hardly imagine even in her current state, shoulders hunched over and hands clasped together because they had nothing else to hold into. He was still large back then, but he looked tiny from where she saw him. Not quite behind him, not quite above. She was hovering there, like the apathetic God that was watching him just to ignore him.

Or… like the symbiote that was climbing onto him, sizing up his head and his anguish before deciding to dive in.

Venom's birth was violent. Violent, and angry, and cold and bitter and everything else Felicia felt when Peter turned her into something she hated. But underneath the grip of that shared torment and loss, something else grew between the cracks. Kinship became dependance, which then became hatred again, before ever so slowly transforming into love.

Whether Eddie was just desperate to have a wife again, or whether Symby was just trying to be human for him, their bond was something so much stronger than anything that could exist on Earth.

Maybe Symby was right about the fabric of the universe weaving them all together. Entangling them, right down to the atoms. When Felicia felt Symby, she was feeling Eddie just as much. She wondered if it worked the other way. When Eddie felt Symby… did he feel Felicia too?

Before she could look in the mist of memories for an answer, the fluid timeline oozed by her like Symby's skin stretched across Eddie's muscles. The symbiote was dead for a while, then alive, then she lost a part of herself to Cletus before she even realised it was gone, and then…

Then there was another Venom. Felicia didn't recognise this one until the maw peeled back from Anne's horrified face. She was hurt, but not as badly as those strewn around her. Gutted. Bitten. The symbiote oozed off of her as she fled, and when she appeared again… Felicia saw the last of her in the exact same way that Eddie did. The same thoughts that had haunted him had taken their toll on his ex-wife, and they left her lying broken on the pavement far below.

Symby was right. It hadn't ended well at all. Felicia had the sinking thought of what might have become of herself, if she'd been under Maniac's control for any longer. What she would have to do to make herself unforgivable, with or without the excuse of an alien in her head.

But before that thought could sink any more than skin-deep, Ann's body, the memories Eddie had of her, they all faded into a cold static… replaced by ones much more familiar to Felicia. Ones she'd lived through with him. She was seeing herself through Venom's eyes, literally, but she almost didn't recognise herself. Everything was too… detailed, too crisp and polished, like staring at a magazine cover rather than herself crouched on a filthy rooftop, both shivering in the cold night air and sweating in tight leather. Even when dressed for bed, exhausted with eyes weighed down by grey bruises under them, she still looked like a model. And then there were more snapshots; when she smiled, the wrinkles her stretched mouth made, the way her eyes were barely visible through her lids when she pouted, that very common smirk when she knew she was about to do something either stupid or ingenious. As if Eddie had dedicated all those minute details to memory, and just let his heart fill in the rest of her.

Then she saw things that hadn't happened between them, things that Eddie must have been imagining or dreaming when she wasn't around, but they were rendered in such intimacy that she almost believed that they had happened. And, with a gasp to no one in particular, she knew that she _wanted _it all to happen with him.

Being held in his arms. Against his chest. Against his mouth. Lovemaking… how could a man as giant as him be so gentle at it?

All she wanted was to find out for herself. Because if this was really what he saw in her, _with _her… he wasn't lying when he danced with her. When she matched up what he said with what he saw, and in turn matched that to what she saw in him, adding a whole new context to every hurried glance and smothered blush and nervous words that neither of them quite knew how to say to each other...

Really, he was just like a little boy with a crush on the girl next door.

Despite everything, despite all that tried to kill him, despite even himself, he was still such a fucking _dork. _

And, unlike Peter, he didn't use it to hide the parts of himself that he'd rather didn't exist. No, this man was the complete opposite. He wore the worst of himself like a badge. But under Venom's skin, under his snarls and hard eyes and harder muscles, his heart was soft. Soft, and fragile, and far too big even for his massive chest.

And he wanted her to have it.

He saw the worst of her, and he still wanted her to have it.

...Felicia really wished she'd kissed him when she had the chance. Yet another chance in her life that she was too slow to take.

"_**I made my home in Eddie, Felicia."**_ Symby had brought her gently back to the surface of the present, now propping her up against the headboard. Felicia felt her blood sink from her head to the rest of her body, as the visions curled away from her like ink being flooded out her eyes by her tears. "_**But there's room in there for more than one."**_

Felicia blinked and squeezed her eyes to clear them, but she already knew what the black smudge in front of her was. Symby met her eyes, patiently waiting for them to empty out the years and years of desperately needed release, forehead pressed to forehead. She coaxed molecules through Felicia's cheeks to dry them, helped her through the thick sobs that kept trying to break past the stitches in her stomach. She did everything she could to rewrite the sad history that symbiote and now human both knew far too well.

By the end of it, Symby had convinced her, still cradling her head while she found the strength to nod once. Then there was a click from her bedroom door as it slowly opened.

"Felicia?"

Eddie spoke softly into the dark, as if unsure of who might be hearing him. Felicia didn't know if Symby had told him when to come in somehow, or how much he'd managed to hear. For the sake of making it through the rest of the night as intact as she could be, she assumed that he just happened to arrive just when she wanted to see him the most.

"Still alive." Felicia raised a weary hand to him, even though she doubted he could see it. "You can turn the light on, by the way."

He did as he came in, reaching for the lamp next to her bed and keeping the bulb at its lowest brightness. The sombre light was cast feebly upon his face, leaving most of it in black as he knelt at the side of the bed, hunched over so he was level with her. All Felicia could really see of that face was the line carved into his mouth, as sharp as his jawline, and his eyes glimmering as wet as her own had been.

Not that she needed to see the rest of it. Like him with hers, she knew all the details of his face by heart, so used to seeing it edged in black and encrusted with fangs. But even with her brain filling in what was left in soft shadow, it couldn't quite make sense of his expression. Not without some help from Symby, a whisper that told her it was just hope trying to break through his mask of terror, the one he'd been wearing for what must have been hours to leave his jaw so set in stone.

Now Eddie exhaled, unclenching and deflating and finally giving into the luxury of relief. When he closed his eyes, Felicia was half-expecting him to sag and fall asleep. He was still wearing the same clothes he'd came to her in, the blood finally washed off the shirt with the rest of him looking like he hadn't slept for a week.

But, after some long seconds of soaking in the darkness and dragging tears back, he forced them open again. His hand was close to hers as it lay limp on the bed, but she didn't quite have the strength to move them together.

"How do you feel?" he asked. She didn't know where to even start, so she croaked out the obvious while her fingers grasped at empty air.

"Like I took a bullet through my gut."

Eddie laughed, a quick release of breath from behind his teeth, but didn't smile. "Yeah, sounds about right."

Symby firmed against Felicia's spine and neck, helping her sit up without the risk of losing even more time to unconsciousness. Eddie looked as bad as she felt… how long had he really been awake for? How long had she _not _been awake for?

Just as she was wetting her lips to ask, Eddie heeded whatever unspoken cue Symby sent to him.

"The party was last night," he said. This time, Felicia was the one letting relief wash over her. "Symby's been healing you slowly to… not make things worse." Eddie kept looking at his hand as he spoke, the one so close to Felicia's, and now that she knew she hadn't slept into a new year she realised he was rolling something between his fingers. He held up a forefinger and thumb, with the squashed steel of a spent bullet caught between them.

"We think this was meant for me," he said, letting Felicia get a look at what tried to kill her before hiding it away in his hand again. It looked like any piece of shrapnel that could be fished out of a corpse, nothing capable of killing Venom, but that wasn't the only reason she didn't quite believe that she wasn't the target.

"But you're _bulletproof_," she argued.

"Shooter might not have known that. Or they were just so desperate to see me dead that they didn't care." Eddie didn't sound very interested in how easy it was for people to try and kill him. To try was one thing, and to succeed was another. Felicia supposed he was well used to the former by now.

But whoever the bullet was really meant for, it didn't change the most important fact of who really crashed the party.

"Symby told me Carnage there."

Eddie didn't flinch at hearing the name, but he came close enough.

"...Yeah," he admitted, sounding like he was having to gulp down bile. "We didn't see him… but we felt him. Flash told us that Osborn was the one who gave orders to the shooter. He wasn't in the lobby, but he was watching it from the security room. Broke in while everyone else was down there. Must have seen us, and when he did… if Carnage was with him, all he would have cared about is killing Venom."

Eddie looked away, and each breath he took seemed to require deliberate, concentrated effort. Felicia could tell he was giving her the puzzle pieces, to save himself the pain of seeing the full picture... but she couldn't see how they all fit together.

"What do you mean 'with him'?" she asked, with the same regret she felt just before she first heard that Cletus was on Earth.

"I mean… he might have gotten the symbiote off of Cletus somehow." Eddie looked back at her, now not breathing at all. "And if he did... he _is _Carnage now."

Dimly, Felicia registered that it meant Norman Osborn, the certified asylum case, was now even more insane and powerful than ever. It warranted an intense reaction, one that she simply couldn't summon even if it had managed to surprise her. After all, had Carnage ever really left Earth to begin with?

"I guess he got sick of just being a Goblin." It was all she could say on the subject. Just thinking about it, the consequences and what might come of it, made her want to turn another bullet on herself. Then again, if she ever did have to come across Carnage again, that wasn't such a bad idea...

"When did you speak to Flash?" She wanted a better idea of what had happened without her. Anything other than having to think too much about the implications of what happened.

"After I made sure you were safe, I went back to the tower." Eddie seemed just as eager as her to not talk about Carnage anymore. "By then, there was only him and the police left. They managed to arrest most of the Hood's guys, but Osborn got away. "

"Of course he did. He wouldn't be Osborn if he let himself get caught." Felicia sighed as Symby closed around her ribs, gently coaxing her breathing, soaking up all the oxygen she could get. She seemed to have developed a strategy for keeping her alive, and Felicia was content to let it work itself along. All she had to do was lie back and watch Eddie as he watched her. Perhaps he could see or feel how Symby was wreathed around her organs.

Or maybe he was wondering if he should try to kiss her again. She hoped it was that.

"Why didn't you want Flash to heal you?" he asked.

Felicia masked her disappointment. "I was... worried I wouldn't be able to talk to Symby anymore if he did." Even in the delirium of pain and with shock setting in, she knew exactly what Anti-Venom could do to her. Eddie's fear of it was more than justified, since it would completely erase all the symbiote traces in his body. Even if Symby somehow managed to escape it in time, their bond would be destroyed. Maybe even irreparable. It would have done the same to Felicia, wiping out whatever of Venom or Maniac that still lingered in her, that Flash hadn't managed to get the first time. Not only would she lose the link to Symby… she'd lose the link to Eddie too.

Beside her, he looked grave but not yet fully understanding. "Was that really worth the risk of dying?"

"You would have done it, too," she said. "If anything else meant never hearing her again."

"...Yeah. Yeah, I would have." Eddie could at least understand that. "I just can't imagine anyone else doing the same."

"Well, I don't exactly have many other aliens to talk to." Felicia couldn't manage a shrug, so she let her tone handle it. "Besides... I don't think the universe would have forgiven me for it. Since Symby thinks we're both entangled."

"_**Quantum entanglement,"**_ Symby corrected, and from Eddie's smile he must have been able to hear her too.

"That would explain a lot," he conceded, reaching hand that wasn't on the bed to the side of his face, scratching at the thin cover of stubble on his chin. The lamp light spilled across his forearm, and Felicia noticed a flaw burned into the skin.

"Doesn't explain that scar on your arm, though," she said. She didn't remember him ever having one there, and even Eddie looked at it as if he never noticed it either.

"I took a bullet myself," he admitted. "Or three. I kinda lost count. Symby was busy keeping your wound closed while I got us out of there, so parts of me were exposed." Then he remembered something else, and reached into a pocket for it. "Your music player didn't fare much better, I'm afraid." He placed the dented plastic square close to her splayed hand, circuitry and the faint fuzz of static spilling out of the cracks. "Still works, though. Kinda."

Felicia recognised the notes playing under the clog of static, and couldn't help smiling as she put it aside. It did still work, kinda, but that wasn't the only reason why her lips stretched despite the pain in her face, despite Symby trying to freeze her muscles for her own good.

"Leaving yourself vulnerable like that was pretty brave of you," she praised, and there was also unspoken thanks for trusting her with Symby. For being willing to suspend his bond with her, for however long it took for Felicia to heal. If she hadn't already been convinced that she wanted to be with him, that would have been more than enough.

For some reason, he went still when she spoke. He rubbed his face again. And he looked like he wished he'd left the room dark for both of them.

"I wouldn't say it's brave," he eventually said; slowly, haltingly, as if his tongue was tripping over something. "I'm just not that scared of dying."

"Oh?" That wasn't what surprised Felicia. That was still to come, seconds later that felt like hours.

"Yeah… it's what comes after that scares me." He whispered it, so that only Felicia and his alien within her would hear. So that anyone else watching them wouldn't. Felicia quickly realised who he was so scared of watching him.

"Never thought you'd be the religious type," she confessed, only one of many confessions she'd have to make to get anywhere close to heaven when, one day, a bullet would finally hit her somewhere she couldn't come back from.

Eddie looked at her, then his hands, maybe wondering if it was obvious that he'd been praying with them. He curled his fingers in and had to summon the effort to keep facing her.

"I was… raised Catholic," he told her. "When one of the first things you get taught is how much of a dick God can be, you end up paying a lot of attention to him. Some of it was out of fear. Mostly I just thought it would help Dad not hate me as much." Now he turned away, a whisper wrapped tight in his sigh. "He always said… God does this, God does that, he giveth, he taketh away, but did he kill Mom? No, no, that was all Eddie's fault."

Whether or not she was supposed to hear it, Felicia did. She heard it with crystal clarity and understanding, and it was only with that understanding that she realised the truth.

The guilt that Eddie felt, that he insisted on dragging behind him wherever he went, it was never about 8-Ball. Never about the innocents, the not-so-innocents, the casualties or victims or people just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

It was about the first kill he'd ever had. The kill that had brought him into the world.

"Sorry." He rubbed at the back of his neck, giving her a smile that was without humour but which still managed to pour over her heart. "You almost died and here I am, one-upping you again at the shitty life thing."

"I think you've earned the trophy fair and square." Felicia copied his smile, and they seemed to catch each other in a feedback loop, mirroring each others faces. Whether the symbiote shared between them had something to do with it, neither could tell.

"I guess it makes the 'bullet through the back thing' seem like not as big a deal," he added.

"It isn't. I'm sure Symby's fixed you up from even worse."

"She has… but that's me. We know how to deal with getting hurt. This is _you, _and the last time…" Eddie's voice trailed off, and when he tried to restart it the cracks were getting wider and wider with every word he forced out. "The last time Symby tried to help someone, I… we…"

Eddie knelt there, drowning in what he couldn't make himself say, his palm laying open as if desperate for the right words to fall into it. Felicia couldn't give them to him. Instead, she gave him her hand, finally able to bring them both together.

"I know, Eddie," she said quietly, wrapping her cold fingers in his warmth. "I know about Annie."

He was looking at her hand, as if wondering if it was really there. He kept looking at it, as his mouth parted to let out a heavy, shivering breath. He gulped down tears before they could reach eyes that still couldn't face her.

"How much did Symby tell you?" His throat must have been a vice to make speaking sound like such a struggle. It was like the vocal equivalent of the hissed chords coming from her broken music player. Still working, despite everything that tried to crush it to dust.

"Enough for me to know that it wasn't your fault," she answered. Eddie was already shaking his head.

"It was. I made Symby try and fix her, but… Venom got to her. She couldn't live with it. She…" He pulled away from Felicia, as if terrified he would infect her any further. He covered his mouth with his hand, physically holding back whatever was trying to claw out, then drove fingers deep into his forehead and hair. She saw his mouth as something twisted and crooked, precursor to the overwhelming sadness now taking over his body. Not taking root, no. It had already done that long ago.

"We killed her, Felicia." With all his effort going towards not crying, there was nothing to help banish the sobs from his throat. "We killed her like we killed so many other people, and we're probably killing you too. Maybe not right now, but months from now or even years, it…"

His cracked voice finally broke off and shattered. It had to, before the rest of him broke first. He couldn't even hold his head up anymore, almost pressing it against the mattress with only his guilty hands keeping it aloft. His hair practically brushed Felicia's fingers.

Symby had to hold her down before she reached over and ripped open whatever was still holding her together, while holding herself back from Eddie at the same time. Here were two ladies who had to watch the man they loved suffering, and who could do nothing to help him.

But Felicia was at least going to try. It was the least that she owed him.

"Eddie."

No response from the bowed head beside her, nothing but laboured breaths that seemed to regret coming out every time they did.

"Eddie, look at me."

She knew how much he didn't want to, how much it hurt him to even try. But, bless him, he did it anyway. She could barely see the blue in his eyes past all the tears being held at bay.

"If you'd asked God to save Annie," she asked, "would he have?"

Eddie glanced away just long enough to blink away the worst of the tears. One still managed to slip down his cheek, but he quickly erased it as he roughly passed a hand over his face. As if trying to forcibly rearrange it into something better for her to see. Then he bowed his head again, only slightly as he shook it.

"...No," he answered. "I don't think so. I think He just has a sick sense of humour." Though his voice was quiet, at least it wasn't nearly as painful to hear now.

"Wouldn't surprise me," Felicia added softly, giving him a moment to find himself again amongst the wreckage he'd just crashed them both into. Or, at least, a version of himself that he was more willing to show her. He sighed once, forcing out the last of his grief in a single breath that would have completely deflated a lesser man.

"All I used to hear," he went on, "was how He's the only one who has any say in who dies on this world. That He's the absolute authority."

Felicia didn't have much experience when it came to religion, but being told what to do was close enough for her. "I've always been told I have problems with authority."

There was the smallest, faintest ghost of a smile on Eddie's face, just before he exorcised it a second later. "So you'll know why I eventually told God to shove it. Don't know why it took me so long, but that was supposed to be it. Guess I thought it would spare me from... divine judgement, or whatever."

Felicia blinked slowly, a replacement for nodding.

"But you still feel like He's around." She wondered how similar it was to her bouts of wishful thinking after her father had died. Wondering if it was at all possible he was still alive, that maybe he changed his mind about her on his deathbed. That maybe, if there was a heaven and he was in it, that he was looking down at her with pride. Or just looking down at her at all.

Whether or not Symby thought it was necessary or essential to send any of that over to him, Eddie nodded with his frown caught behind his fingers. "A long time ago, I asked myself what gave Him the right to choose who lives or dies. And then, not so long ago, I asked what gave _me_ the right to choose. Both times, I couldn't find an answer." He closed his eyes, but there weren't so many tears to hide away now. This time, he just let them fall. "We might've kept Annie alive for a little longer, but... she'd have been better off if she just died then. She was doomed the moment she met me."

Felicia wanted to slap him almost as much as she wanted to kiss him. Anything to stop him blaming himself for so much. Then again, it would have been pretty hypocritical of her.

"Everyone's doomed, Eddie. It's part of being human."

"I hate being human."

"Yeah, that's another part of it."

He opened his eyes, letting them dry by themselves. Behind the cage of his fingers, the corners of his mouth twitched. By the time he pulled his hand away, he wasn't quite smiling but it was more than Felicia had thought she could give him.

"You talk a lot for a woman who should be dead," he said.

"It distracts me from the pain." That was definitely true. She'd been so distracted by being distraught with Eddie that she hadn't even noticed her back cramping again. It was hardly something to worry about with everything else that was wrong with her, but it still hurt like a bitch.

"Do you need anything?" Eddie asked, leaning in closer as she tried to rearrange herself without Symby protesting too much.

"Just some water, please." Another thing she hadn't noticed while she'd been talking; how dry her mouth was. Eddie rose from the floor and returned less than a minute later with a glass. A black tendril reached out from Felicia's elbow without her telling it to, and took it for her to gulp down. It was all gone in seconds, the cold down her throat fighting against Symby's warmth all around her before being quickly overpowered.

"And if you or Flash happened to hear anything about Hood's plans while Osborn was busy wrecking them," Felicia added as Eddie took the glass from her, "I'd sure love to know about it."

"The goons were a little busy running for their lives to stop and spill anything," Eddie said as both apology and excuse. "Also, we were a little busy getting you the hell out of there."

"So I got shot for nothing." Felicia had expected as much, but hearing it confirmed only made her cramp worse. As if the wound was judging her for not even getting hurt for a good reason.

"Not quite," Eddie contested. "Cause I had a look at that list you snagged off Tarantula."

Felicia's eyebrows shot up by reflex. "Where did you find it?"

He looked away for a second, then pulled something out from her bedside table. Something that should have been hidden under her pillow, still with ten final pages to be read, that he held up with none of the embarrassment that was flooding her.

"'The Billionaire's New Bride'?" Even without the lamp on, Felicia would have easily heard his smirk.

"Shut up," she groaned, starting to prefer the back pain to listening to him being smug.

"Hey, I liked it. But on the back…" He pulled the list out from where it was being used as a bookmark. "I noticed there was only one date on it, a lot bigger than anything on the other side. And I figured it out." He turned it so she could see the date, the one that she figured was just for another distraction job. The one that read _16/09/2018, CENTRAL (W), 11PM._

"That middle part is an address," Eddie revealed. "Short-hand for the west side of Central Park. And I think it's actually when this gathering is taking place."

Central W… of course! The park was huge and empty enough at night that whatever Hood was going to do there, he'd have plenty of places to hide and escape to if something went wrong. Not to mention that the date was so close by, it was unlikely to have meant anything else.

It was right in front of Felicia the whole time. Only Symby stopped her from slapping herself.

"Tomorrow night." She inhaled sharply. "We need to go there."

Eddie snatched the paper away, as if it would remove the temptation from her. "You're not going anywhere," he declared. "Not until Symby decides you're okay."

Felicia rolled her eyes, because there was no force or pain great enough in the universe that would ever manage to her from doing that. "Eddie, I have never been a 'good' patient and I'm not about to start being one now." She had half a mind to pull herself out of bed just to make a point, and she would have if it was up to her. Eddie must have seen her struggling against Symby, and knew he was going to lose against her no matter what.

"Fine." He spread his arms out in defeat. "But you're not leaving this room until then. Symby can stay with you while I go scout the place out tomorrow morning."

Felicia stuck her tongue out in rebellion, but then realised he was rising to leave her, just out of range for her to grab onto.

"Eddie." He froze at the door while it was cracked open, and turned to face her.

"What you said, last night… did you mean it?"

Eddie blinked, but other than that his eyes didn't move at all. He seemed to be trying to figure out what he wanted to say versus what she wanted to hear. Eventually, he decided they were one and the same.

"Every word."

Felicia's smile was too big for just one person. "Could you stay a little longer? Please?"

Eddie closed the door. When he knelt by her bed, he finally took her hand this time. And when he raised it to his face, she saw it was coated in black. Symby silently pulled them both together, rippling against his lips as he murmured a promise into them both.

"We're not going anywhere."

Felicia felt her mouth form a 'thank you' without having to speak it. She didn't want to speak anymore. Between Symby and Eddie holding her, healing her, doing so much for her that she didn't know how to repay, all she wanted was to wake up and still see him next to her.

Outside of their gazes that refused to leave each other, the soft and broken static around their song kept playing, lulling Felicia to sleep. The last thing she remembered was Eddie's lips still pressed to her symbiote skin.


	24. Night 17

Eddie waited until she fell asleep again, cradled in his symbiote. It felt strange, not having Symby in his ear or lungs or nestled between the discs of his spine, but he was willing to go without her. Felicia needed her much more than he did.

He slowly let go of her hand, to try and not wake her as well as just not wanting to let go, and resisted the urge to move his lips somewhere other than her fingers. Even moving her hair away from her eyes felt like something forbidden to him.

Last night, Flash had asked Eddie again why he helped her. He'd answered that Flash of all people should have known exactly why. And then, in the instant afterwards, Flash did know. It was as simple as that.

After being assured that Carnage was nowhere to be found, Eddie had almost asked how Flash had gone about it. Confessing. Convincing her. Whatever he'd called it back then. But then he decided, he didn't really want to know. He wasn't Flash Thompson, which he somehow counted as both a blessing and a flaw. He didn't need to know what anyone else _would _have done in his position, because no one else was here with him.

No one… not even Symby. He'd been talking to himself, only just remembering that no one could hear him. He could sense her, faintly, buried deep in Felicia's scar tissue, but her voice was far away in a whole other universe.

That's exactly what Felicia was. A whole other universe.

God, he really didn't want to leave her.

But he said he'd check Central Park for them, and that was what he had to go do. Through her front door, trying not to envy how luxurious just the living room of her apartment was compared to all of his.

He stopped off there first, despite how he wished to be almost anywhere else, feeling so vulnerable at street level even when he hurried inside. It didn't feel like home. It never did, but now it was especially so. Because, for the first time in months that he'd taken for granted, he was completely alone.

He shaved, trying to scrape his fear of losing Felicia away from his face, trying not to sag in front of the mirror. He changed clothes, still not entirely used to wearing plain fabric instead of something symbiotic. Swept up an old hoodie from a box, something to cover his head while he had to be outside, leaving everything else so he wouldn't have to stay any longer. His bed called because he knew exactly how long he'd been awake for, but he kept ignoring it. He didn't want Felicia, or himself, to wake up alone.

So, he wrenched himself aside. Barely keeping his head on shoulders that were just there, not entirely a part of him like the rest of his heavy body, as he went for the window… and stopped.

Looked down at the street. Remembered that there was no one around to stop him falling to the pavement. Remembered, for the second time in mere hours, what he'd seen the last time he had this perspective.

He tried not to think too much about it. Even before he saw how Annie died, he never liked the thought of throwing himself to his death. Too much time for regret to kick in before he hit the ground. He was cowardly enough that he'd always wanted it to be quick.

And Felicia had actually called him brave. Maybe Symby would let her know the truth about that while she slept.

The walk to Central Park wasn't supposed to take long, but it felt like hours. The whole time Eddie had to spend outside, around countless people he might accidentally kill one day and those who would try to kill him first, once again he felt watched. Monitored. A lot more eyes on him than those that supposedly dangled from the sky from a string of omnipotence.

Those ones, he could ignore.

These ones, he could not.

Felicia had said almost no one knew who Venom was nowadays, even less people than those who knew that Flash was Venom. But he doubted it. He couldn't believe that he'd be fortunate enough for everyone to just forget about him. Everything he'd done, with and without Venom in his veins.

But… no one had come after him. No one was crying out on the streets for justice, no one that he knew of plotting revenge against him for everything he'd done. Those who knew his victims had somehow moved on or, more likely, they were dead now too, and could only curse him from where he couldn't yet hear them.

In a selfish, egocentric way only he could pull off, it was almost saddening. The fact that everyone could so easily have completely forgotten about Eddie Brock, even though it was supposed to be a blessing. After all, he was practically absolved. Only Symby and God and now Felicia knew about what he'd done.

He counted himself lucky that he only cared about two out of the three of those, just as he noticed that the eyes had lifted from his back. This side of the park was almost empty, at least for now. He hadn't even been watching where he was walking, yet he'd somehow arrived where he needed to be. It was one of the clearings in the trees, a small one that sat at the foot of the hill that the footpath curved along the top of. Past the treeline he couldn't see any signs of preparation, no obvious criminals or lookouts posted to keep people away.

He knew this was the place, though. Something bad was going to happen here. He'd learned to recognise those hints that he or even Symby couldn't always see.

Something in the air this time.

Another pair of eyes watching him from afar, dangling from their own string that was more like a rope. Or a noose.

Once again, he tried not to think too much about it. They didn't follow him back to Felicia's apartment. Or, if they did, they managed to hide amongst all the other eyes. His own closed over as soon as he reached Felicia's side again, retaking his place kneeling next to her bed in vigil. She was still asleep and, before his head even hit the mattress, he was too.

**xx**

When he awoke, slumped over one side of her bed, spluttering against the cushion of his arms, he heard a zipper being pulled. Not down this time, but up.

Blinking away the pulse that hammered behind his eyelids, he realised she was no longer in the bed in front of him, but now standing on the edge of the moonlight cast through her window. The black of her suit blended into the darkness of the room, making the soft white around her look like it was carved out of the light itself. He'd only noticed that she turned to face him from the lively glitter of her narrowed eyes.

Not how he'd envisioned waking up to her, but he was just glad to see that she was able to stand.

"Was wondering when you'd wake up." Felicia pulled her last glove down, so the claws on the end were spread across her fingertips, glinting and matching her eyes. Eddie was still trying to dislodge hard grains of sand from his own, shoving himself upright from the bed with, he noticed a second later, Symby wrapped around his hand. She seemed to wink at him from somewhere inside.

"Says the woman who spent all day yesterday in a coma," he groaned back, masking just how relieved he was to see her up and walking. Hell, he was half-expecting to wake up in his own bed yet again, with a nightmare instead of a dream to torture him for the rest of the night. Coupled with the more subtle relief of having his symbiote back, that hollow space in his head finally filled again even as it throbbed with pain, he almost completely forgot why Felicia was suited up. From somewhere he didn't know, still half-asleep and dimly remembering that he'd told her something embarrassing that she hadn't ran away from yet, he almost offered to help her take it all off.

"It's 10 o'clock right now," she said, making sure her mask was glued on tight. "We have an hour to get to Central Park."

Eddie yawned and scratched at the two days worth of stubble on his face, only taking in bits and pieces of Felicia's voice. She could have been saying anything and he would have been nodding along blindly, but for both their sakes he made himself listen.

10 o'clock. It had been before noon when Felicia regained consciousness and just after that when he left, so he must have been sleeping for at least six hours.

Central Park. The Hood.

They were going there to try and kick his ass. Shit.

Where did she even get that idea from?

...Oh. He was the one who gave her it in the first place. All cause he wanted to impress her with something other than violence for once.

Goddammit, Eddie. Serves you right for showing off, now you were gonna get her killed all over again.

"You sure we should do this?" He threw it out as a last ditch effort to make her reconsider. Maybe she'd see reason now that he was there to stop her. Maybe she'd realise that last night (was it really only a day ago?) was far too close to death for either of them.

But, he knew her far too well now to be seriously expecting anything like that. She didn't even take a moment it consider it as a possibility.

"If we don't, then this whole month of chasing after Hood will have all been for nothing."

He was about to argue with her on that while she checked over her grappling hook. It hadn't been for nothing where he was concerned… but he'd embarrassed himself enough for one week.

"I just don't want-"

Felicia was ready to interrupt as soon as he opened his mouth, turning the point of her index finger onto him. "Don't you dare say what I know you're gonna say, Eddie. I'm not gonna get hurt. But if I do, it'll be my own fault and I'll deal with it." It was only when she lowered her finger that he recalled how it felt to be scratched by her, and he thought of how badly he wanted to feel it again. With or without claws.

Eddie blinked hard before he started imagining how her moans would sound. He still wanted to argue with her. He still wanted to try and spare them both. Mostly, he still wanted to kiss her. But… this time, it was Symby holding him back rather than encouraging him. She didn't give a reason for why. Only that it wasn't up to him when it happened. He had to let Felicia take control. She'd decide when, and if, they did something stupid like that.

Right now, they were about to do something else that was stupid. Playing heroes. At least he was pretty good at that.

"Alright then." He sighed, and as his chest deflated Symby surged over it, swallowing him in one gulp as he walked to the window. Passing so close to Felicia painted bumps all over his skin, but Symby hid them under her thick ooze. His thoughts, too, so focused on her and the 'what-ifs' of last night, what might have happened if there'd been no bullet, no Carnage, what would she be saying now if he'd kissed her just a little sooner… Venom drowned most of them out.

Most of them.

Maybe he wasn't supposed to have done it sooner. Maybe he wasn't supposed to have done it at all.

Venom perched on the edge of the window, most of his body hanging out of it as if mirroring Eddie's state of mind.

"**We'll lead the way," **he said. Even though, at that moment, he had no real idea of what they were leading each other into. Felicia must have known that. She was too smart not to see it. Yet, she didn't say a thing. Not once did she speak during the run to Central Park; not while they negotiated crossroads and flew over stop lights, nor while they ducked windows and, when they reached the edge of the park, looked for a tree growing over the fence that could shield their entrance, listened to the wood creak beneath them as they climbed along the jutting branch and tried to stay as far off the ground as they could.

Playing 'the floor is lava' with all of Central Park. He wished he could have laughed about that.

The tiny pocket of space near the west was as deserted as it was in the day time, though it was harder to see where the treeline ended in the dark. At least, harder for Venom. Felicia's eyes were glowing next to him, crystals of blue floating in the leaves that crowded all around them. They followed the curve of the path from the trees that lined it, until she saw something.

"Down there." She pointed down the hill, whispering over the rustle of foliage. "There's some kind of… field, around the edge of the trees."

Venom squinted even though he knew that only she was seeing it. "**We can't see anything." **His growl came from his chest, compressed tight within his ribs so it wouldn't carry far.

"It's like a mirage, almost," she tried to explain. "Everything around it is blurring. Might be some kind of magical shield." Then, without warning, she dropped down to go see for herself. Venom scrambled to follow her without crashing down through the branches, and by the time he caught up to her she was already at the foot of the hill, combing her claws through the air in front of her as if she was playing some invisible harp.

"Yep. It's magical." She exhaled with her hands on her hips, acting far too casual for someone who was standing before an invisible and possibly lethal trap. More like she'd just discovered that her car had a flat tire all along. "Doesn't react to my presence though, so I think we can pass through it."

Venom was still trying to see what he couldn't, no matter how both Eddie and Symby's eyes screwed together nor how close they were willing to get to the supposed barrier. That Felicia could not only see it, but could tell if it would kill them or not, was a little more than either of them could process at once.

"**You... have much experience with 'magic'?" **Venom asked skeptically. He'd seen a lot of weird shit on both the good and bad sides of New York; family dramas between 'Gods' that were really just aliens on ego trips, a talking duck once on his own TV show and whatever the hell Martin Li's thing was supposed to be… but he never counted any of it as magic. There was only so much disbelief a man could suspend in one lifetime.

"Not as much as Hood does," Felicia answered, leaning down to examine the so-called field from the bottom. "But it's how I got bad luck powers in the first place. Maybe that's how I can see it and you can't."

That answered one question that Venom hadn't even ever thought to ask. He'd kind of just assumed the bad luck came with the cat look.

Maybe now was the time for stupid questions. Better now than never, at least.

"**Is this Hood guy basically a wizard?" **he asked, not knowing how it would help with kicking his ass but wanting to know anyway.

"Pretty much." Felicia smiled, and he now had a reason for asking. Stupid questions for doing stupid things. Pointing out just how absurd this evening was going to be, with or without context, to help soften the risk of just how dangerous it could be as well.

But really, he just loved seeing her smile.

"**We've fought dinosaurs, mutants, the government, the legal system and other aliens somehow even worse than us," **he said, unable to resist a grin of his own, "**but 'wizards' are pretty new."**

"Just pretend like you're playing Dungeons and Dragons," Felicia suggested, straightening up with a dramatic twist of her neck so her hair fell across one shoulder. "And be grateful you're not up against a dragon. You ready to go in?"

Venom hesitated. He hadn't expected her to be so willing to just charge in. Then again, he should have known not to have too many expectations about her by now. She was always guaranteed to throw aside every single one, just when he thought he'd managed to figure her out. Maybe she was just used to keeping people guessing so often that by the time they thought they pinned her down, she'd already robbed them blind.

So Venom did what most men were too proud to do with her, and gave up trying to keep pace with her. "**Won't make much difference whether we're ready or not," **he muttered with a shrug.

"Liking the confidence," she deadpanned, and he could see her luminescent contacts rolling around freely in her eyes. "If it makes you feel better, I'll go through first."

Venom was about to shrug again, but Eddie's shoulders were stiff. He was watching her do one last test against the edge of the shield, seconds away from pulling herself through it with no idea of what was on the other side, if there even _was _another side.

That wasn't what had Eddie frozen, though. He'd been thinking on his own while Venom handled his words, watching Felicia's reactions from more than just wanting to be in awe of her. Here they were; standing together, joking, poking at each other's worries, flaying apart the other's hesitation… almost as if nothing had happened since the first night she'd come to him. As if nothing was _going _to happen.

Two weeks ago, Eddie would have barely given a second thought to Felicia. One week ago, he'd have been able to stand near her without sweating. Because one week ago, or maybe less than that, he hadn't considered that there was anything within her for him, or for Symby. But then, the Felicia he'd once known became the Felicia he now knew. Then she became a possibility, and that was the end of him wanting anything that didn't involve her too.

It was one thing to stand in someone's shadow, if you had no intentions of trying to merge your own into it. But once you had the idea, once you even considered the possibility of there being anything more in it for the both of you… well, then that was it. Then it was impossible to not want it. Then it was impossible to want much of anything else.

Eddie knew what he wanted. He didn't want this month he'd spent with her to truly go to waste. He had to be sure of what _she_ wanted, before it was too late.

"Felicia, wait." Symby had released Eddie's head, peeling back to linger around his neck. The night was cold on his face, but he didn't let it show.

Felicia did as he asked, the bright blue in her eye sockets blinking in and out of existence when she faced him. As if she was only temporarily there, only for a few seconds at a time. Eddie looked away, thinking he could just ignore any attempts to interrupt him.

"If… one of us doesn't get out of there, or…" He inhaled deeply, spoke slowly, still looking away. "If neither of us do… I-"

Symby was trying to tug his head back around, pulling his neck muscles to point his words towards Felicia. At least, he thought it was her. But then he felt the claws gently touching his jaw, a touch that he recognised from much less tender moments from before, then the fur from her gloves wisping up to tickle his neck, and then... Felicia's lips moulding against his.

They were softer than he was prepared for. Warmer. And when they split apart, they pulled him in. He was holding her face, but he didn't even know that he'd moved his arm. A black claw on her cheek, then several cupping the gentle curve of her jaw. Something solid hit against his back, holding him upright as he held her in turn.

For the first time that he knew of, Venom's tongue was best left behind. Felicia was only interested in Eddie's for now, and he was grateful to oblige. Wherever her mouth moved, whenever a moan threatened to slip out between them, he moved in turn to smother her. He marvelled at how her hair felt, how she tasted, how her body fit so well against his…

It was better than any of the dreams.

He didn't want to pull away but Felicia forced him to, far too soon. Their foreheads were still together, noses right next to each other, their shared heat ebbing from one body to the other. They shared gasps too when they parted, their breaths forming thin clouds that mingled in the cold air as it carried them away. She tried to funnel hers through a smile that was brighter than the moon above them, but not as bright as her enhanced eyes. Blue, brilliant, blinding his own so that all he could see was her, and that was all he wanted to see.

"Then at least I'll die with one less regret," she whispered. She pressed her answer to his lips one last time, before she was simply gone from his arms. Not torn free, but having slipped right through them like she was just a gust of wind. All she left behind were traces of silver in the dark, afterimages of her hair flowing behind her and aftershocks of its silky strands wrapped in his fingers.

Blinking slowly, breathing even slower, Eddie thought he saw a ripple in the trees before him, that mirage Felicia had described as she slipped into it. He knew he'd have to follow her in, but he couldn't move. She wasn't pressing him anymore against the tree that was holding him up, but he still felt crushed there. Paralysed. Sometimes Symby would hold him in place for his own good, but this wasn't that.

"Symby… what's wrong with me?"

There was a gurgle in his throat. She was amused by his terror. "_**You're in love again, darling."**_

She knew exactly what love felt like, after all. Usually one spent so long in between falling in love with others that they completely forgot what it felt like when the next time came. But Eddie had a constant reminder of it seeped into his bones.

How it tasted when the endorphins flooded his bloodstream. How his core temperature spiked so suddenly. How his heart could only justify its existence through other people.

Now that he'd found someone who didn't live within it, that he was willing to let in, it was simply history repeating itself.

For the first time that day, he wasn't trying not to think about something. This time, it was impossible not to think of her.

'_Love… in love with Felicia Hardy.' _Eddie pulled in his lungs, to try and anchor the rest of him to Earth. '_Okay. I can deal with that.'_

Felicia was waiting for him on the other side of that barrier, that hidden shield that still flickered from her intrusion. That was all the convincing he needed to follow after her.

He pushed himself through without hesitation, and it was like he'd just walked into an industrial freezer. When he gasped, ice stung at his throat. He couldn't see any snow, couldn't see much of anything in the dark, but the air literally crackled with frost. New York wasn't this cold in autumn… but Eddie doubted they were even still in New York.

Symby covered his head again, protecting him from the sudden chill (she was used to worse from a life spent in outer space) as they both searched for Felicia. Her searchlight eyes found Venom first, and she waved him over with a flourish of the fur on her wrist. She was still at the very edge of the treeline, taking refuge behind a tangled bush that was nowhere near big enough to hide Venom. He tried to camouflage to compensate, blending as much of his massive back and shoulders into the darkness around him as he could. He was about to ask her something, if she felt the cold as well or if she'd enjoyed the kiss, or something equally as dumb and irrelevant, but she shushed him before he even opened his maw. Maybe she'd sensed that one of the latter was coming.

Still keeping her hand over her mouth, to mask the cloud of her breath in the cold, she jolted her head in the direction beyond the bush.

Somehow, Venom had completely overlooked all the people gathered in the clearing (though when Felicia was around, it was easy to overlook a lot of things). That's what the shield must have been for, to hide them from view. To anyone looking in from outside, they would have just seen empty grass.

In reality, at least in this frozen slice of reality they were trapped in, the grass was anything _but_ empty. Villains, criminals, with gimmicks and without, shivering in stupid costumes and crowding close together for warmth or safety or just to make sure no one tried to kill everyone else, they were all gathered out there the open. They kept a thick border of barren space between the edge of themselves and where the treeline circled them, as if keeping open a radius to escape into if anything went wrong. From the looks of some familiar faces, some of them thought they'd done wrong just by coming here tonight. Venom knew how that felt, even before he saw who they were all gathered around.

The Hood was flying- floating? Hovering? Whatever the word, he was hanging above them all, as if simply standing on an invisible platform. Or with an equally invisible rope tied tight around him, somewhere that it didn't get in the way of the cloak whipping about all over him, with the other end leashed to the sky above. Except there _was _no sky, Venom now noticed. Within the dome of magic, there was simply an endless void of mist gathering near the top, with nowhere else to go. It was like staring into the source of a volcanic eruption and seeing faces curl out from the smoke, like looking up into purgatory, blocked from seeing any light from heaven through it.

...God, Eddie really hated being Catholic. He stopped looking up before he started doubting if it really was 'up' at all. With the spectacle that Hood had made of himself floating above everyone, it seemed only fitting that everything else was just to confuse them. People already confused were a lot easier to play magic tricks on.

That's all it was. A dumb magic trick. That's what Venom told himself, to keep all his parts still glued together.

"My people. My circle. My fellow Kingpins." The Hood did not shout. His voice simply carried to every ear in the vicinity, as if he was standing right beside them. Venom almost jumped when he heard it, and even Felicia flinched. He had to resist a sudden urge to comfort her, not just because he knew she'd slap him away if he tried. They both recovered in a second, to see Hood spreading his arms out (a crucifix pose while walking on thin air? Really? Even the most zealous priest would be rolling their eyes as much as Eddie was) as he continued to… announce? Preach? Whatever it was, it was like listening to a presidential address being given as if it was an out-loud reading of a fast food menu. It's important, sure, but the guy giving it out isn't really acting like it is.

"As always, I'm grateful that you would take the time out of your immensely busy nights to humour your dear leader." There was a chuckle undercutting the words, as if Hood was making a private joke out of himself. Was this just how wizards acted when they had too much magic in their brains? Not even Venom wanted to eat Hood's if there was a chance of picking up whatever it was in there that made him sound stoned. Felicia gave him a look that told him she wasn't expecting their ruthless mystical mastermind to be acting like this either.

"Tonight marks a very special occasion, as I'm sure most of you know. It's been three years since I first brought the veterans among you together, leaders and thieves and pickpockets and most noble thugs among us all, to finally find purpose for your skills. To find direction, meaning for your lives. Three years since I gave it unto you when this city refused to, thanks to the generosity of-"

"Get on with it, Hood! It's fucking freezing out here!"

One of the previously mentioned veterans must have made the demand, because Hood only looked mildly annoyed about being interrupted, a scowl in the shadow of his cowl with his hands on his hips.

"I _was _going to welcome the newcomers as well," he snapped, as if lecturing unruly children, "but if you insist on rushing my hospitality…" He snapped his fingers, and started to descend as if he was on an elevator. Below him a space was quickly cleared, people who already hated being forced so close to others now shoving them aside to make space. Either they respected Hood enough to make way, or they knew they'd be crushed if they didn't move fast enough. Then again, what was fear if not just weaponised respect?

Though he no longer towered over his goons, the Hood still carved out a podium for himself among them. Just as they avoided standing too close to the trees, they also kept a wide berth from him. Like sheep being herded between a wolf and a slaughterhouse. Venom broke away from the sight to watch Felicia again, but she hadn't moved. She was content enough to watch for now. Well, content wasn't quite right. More like she felt like it was all she could do, and she just had to deal with it.

"Tonight is not only a milestone for how long we have lasted," Hood went on with his cloak bunched around his arms, maybe cause he was sick of it flapping all over the place, "despite the continued efforts of Spider-Men and Women and of New York's so-called 'finest'. Tonight, I've brought you all here for something far greater than to just congratulate ourselves for staying alive this long."

As the Hood gave his lazy sermon, there was a commotion in the crowd. A ripple from somewhere in the middle, barging its way to the front, as if jealous of how easily Hood had parted the sea of criminals. As the sudden tide forced itself through that frozen sea, as if spilling over the ice, the sound of its crashing waves demanded notice too.

"No thanks to the bullshit you put us through last night! Almost got us all caught or killed or even worse, and for what?!" When the outcrier reached the edge of the Hood's circle of nothingness, Venom was actually shocked to see it was… well, Shocker. How ironic.

"Shut the fuck up, Herman!" Someone else had been tailing him, the Boomerang guy. He was trying to pull Shocker away from Hood, as if that would save him now, but for all his help he was shoved almost flat on his ass.

"No! Fuck you, Fred! I'm not putting up with this shit anymore!" Shocker turned away from his alleged friend to face the guy who was likely about to murder him in a minute or less. Maybe being the only one there dressed for arctic weather was giving him way too much confidence.

"Ever since we joined this fucking freakshow, we've barely gone one night without losing someone, whether it's to the cops or Venom or whoever the fuck it is that's killing anyone who gets this far, and we don't even know what it's all for! It's the Owl and Chameleon shit all over again, and at least they didn't act like theatre kids and dress even worse!" Shocker was switching his fury between Boomerang, who was now trying to act like he had no idea who this suicidal lunatic was, and Hood, but when he turned to the latter again he found that there was no longer any space between them, no longer any illusion that he was safe. Shocker stumbled back, as if he hadn't expected Hood to actually be listening to him. Only now that he had his attention did he realise how dangerous it was. You could practically see his face trembling beneath the quilt mask.

"I'm… I-I'm just saying that… if we're gonna be expected to be meatshields, it's be nice to have some... warning beforehand…" Shocker shuffled back, but the people behind him stepped away too. They wanted nothing to do with a dead man. Venom looked to Felicia for a signal again, but she only twitched her eyebrows once. Not yet. They still had to see what Osborn and Carnage had to do with all this.

As much as Venom hated having to wait for something terrible to happen, he knew that going in too soon would only make whatever was to come even worse. And, despite how long it had been since his last relationship that wasn't with an alien, he knew that it wasn't good to go ruining any plans made by the woman you loved. He wouldn't move until Felicia did first.

With the way the windchill was blowing, Hood's cloak flicked out towards Shocker when before it had been flowing behind the man wearing it. As if the Hood had switched its direction himself, just to make Shocker regret being there even more. From how he looked down at the man wrapped in quilt, the only thing covering up the trembling bones within, he might as well have been miles in the air on a pedestal, with his hand on a guillotine lever.

The Hood cocked his head, letting the cowl shift so that one side of his face was in shadow. The other side, now exposed to what little light he'd allowed to leak through from the outside world, offered a faint glimmer from his eye. Like the glint of a knife, just before it plunges in deep.

Then he laughed. He slapped Shocker's shoulder, and he laughed even though he flinched away. Possibly even more because he flinched.

"You have some balls, Shocker," Hood praised, still clapping his back while he was wondering how he was still alive. "I admire that. And I understand why you're upset. Really, I do. I bet you're not the only one feeling that way too." Hood looked to everyone else now, who were now averting their gazes since there apparently wouldn't be a murder after all. He let go of Shocker, who scurried back into the crowd that had seconds before condemned him to die alone at his own damn fault, and gave a shrug so exaggerated that it almost sent his cape flying off his shoulders.

"Alright, I'll be the first to admit that last night's… operation did not go entirely as planned. And yes, I wasn't completely honest about what it entailed. But that's what tonight is all about. Showing you all what the risk was for. What we managed to recover from Alchemax while security was busy chasing after all of you."

There was a murmur of hushed tolerance, of everyone just wanting him to get on with it already while he was still in a good mood. But, having survived one near-death experience, Shocker must have developed a taste for them.

"What _we _managed to get?" Shocker slapped his hand to his chest, and Venom was half-expecting his gauntlet to go off and mercy-kill him before he could dig his own grave any deeper. "Excuse me, 'dear leader', but you told us it would be the easiest score of our lives and all we had to do was stand around and wait for the signal _that never came_! That was the _only_ reason we agreed to do it, and we barely got out alive, let alone with anything that was worth all the trouble! And another thing, what the hell was up with the initiation?! You made some of us _kill _each other! But _only _some, yeah, don't wanna be seen as a _complete _fucking psychopath-!"

Shocker didn't see everyone pulling back from him again, this time in anticipation. Like them, he didn't see what it was that grabbed him by the throat, or snatched him off the ground so that his feet were barely touching it. God's noose had come down from whatever it was that had taken over the sky in this world and wrapped itself around his neck.

Venom couldn't see whatever power was choking Shocker, and most of everyone else trapped in that bubble of torment couldn't either. Some like Boomerang and Beetle, those who made their homes at Javelynn's and were only here because of Osborn, reacted with horror. Others had no expressions at all. A few, the veterans they must have been, were in awe.

Whatever their reaction to seeing a man strangled before him for the crime of being too noble of an idiot, they couldn't actually see what was causing it. But two people definitely could. The Hood, and Felicia.

Both hands were clamped over her mouth, holding in a gasp that was desperate to come out, and her eyes were so wide that the irises almost bled out of the contact lenses.

Venom felt himself surging forward, symbiote pulling on the muscles beneath them so hard and suddenly that they instantly gave way to cramps, but the aches weren't what stopped him. Felicia had a hand on his chest, the other still shielding her mouth though he could tell it was frowning. It still wasn't time. Which meant things were only going to get worse, somehow.

Whatever Felicia saw had put her in a state that Venom had never seen before, not even when her spine was shattered by a bullet, and she knew better than him when it would be time to go after it. Especially because, whatever kind of magic 'it' was, it was making Hood grin like a kid with a brand new toy.

"Of all the beings in our universe," he went on, trancelike but no longer so willfully disconnected, more like he had to stay apart from himself lest what he was seeing would threaten to overwhelm him, "of all the demons in hell… Nisanti was the one to bless me. And Nisanti demands a certain _sacrifice_ for his services." The Hood flicked his wrist, and Shocker's noose slackened. Now the tips of his feet touched the ground, and he was allowed to grasp at the bond around his throat to try and stop it crushing his windpipe.

"The deaths of your associates weren't for nothing, I assure you," Hood told him, as if that was really still Shocker's biggest worry. "They were simply part of a toll that needed to be paid. Tonight, we'll see how Nisanti will repay us all for our pledges to him. Tonight… we'll meet Earth's own _personal_ demon."

Hood circled his captive, letting his cape flow behind him so that he was never truly out of Shocker's sight. Just as his cape left one side of his vision, the rest of him reappeared on the other. A literal vicious cycle. "And since tonight is all about hospitality…" He reached up to grab Shocker's chin just as he managed to loosen himself somewhat from the chokehold, forcing his head down so he could only stare straight ahead. "You can be the one to greet him."

In front of them both, the ground was burning. No, it was _collapsing_, green flames reaching up to devour the grass and scorch it to ash. In seconds it had become a roaring pillar of fire, a green geyser that burned a hole right through the sky that was still not a sky. Venom and Felicia had to look away, even though there was no actual heat that they could feel.

"Now don't get me wrong, Shocker," Hood was saying to his bait, shouting over the roar of flames even though he didn't need to. "I'm not doing this cause of your little outburst. I actually liked it. Nice to hear another voice that isn't in my head for once. No, this is for not keeping your fucking mouth shut around Black Cat."

Felicia gasped again, just as Shocker did as well. As he was he had to make every breath count, and now she might need to as well.

"I…" Shocker almost choked all over again on a guilty gulp. "I-I-I didn't say anything, I sw-!"

"Oh yes you did, buddy." Hood might as well have been wagging his finger in disapproval. "Don't make this any worse for yourself by lying."

He wasn't shouting anymore. Felicia was the first to look back at the scene, and the first to see what had been summoned.

"Is that…?" Her whisper was barely even a whisper. More like a hiss, a wheeze. Something desperate to be proven wrong. That was how Venom knew what it was before he even looked.

And it was exactly what he'd been dreading. Bone-white skin. Bone-white everything. The only colour was in the hair that hung limp over his head, red like fire but not like the fire that had brought him here. Ironically it was the only hint of warmth to be found, even as the sight of the rest of him made Eddie's plasma run colder through his skin than everything else around it.

"**That's him… or his body, at least." **Distance was no matter when it came to identifying him. The question was not and never would be, 'is that really Cletus Kasady'? The question was, 'is he alive or dead'?

From what Venom could see, he wasn't fighting against the restraints tying him to the slab that held him upright. He still lacked a lower body that wasn't metal. And, most telling and relieving, he wasn't saying anything. Therefore, the only possibility was that he was dead. Precisely why the Hood had turned this place into a frozen morgue. Cletus was rotten enough as it was.

So then came a new question to be answered; how the fuck did the Hood get his hands on the body?

"Yes, my friends!" Hood allowed a few seconds for the sight to sink in for everyone else still in denial. "Make no mistake, this is the one and only Cletus Kasady! Though some of you would know him better… as Carnage. Don't worry if you haven't made his acquaintance yet, though. You will, soon enough."

Whether or not Hood noticed almost everyone looking left and right for an easy way out of this shit, it made no difference. Not even if they were still able to move. As the Hood approached Kasady's corpse, people started to realise this. As if their feet had been bolted to the ground, glued, stapled, magnetised. A captive audience that, Felicia and Venom both quickly realised, included all spectators too.

"Don't move, Eddie." Felicia didn't turn her head towards him. She barely even moved her lips to whisper the warning.

"**What's going on here, Felicia?" **Venom tried to follow her example, with Symby deliberately not matching the movements of Eddie's mouth.

"The same thing holding Shocker in place…" Felicia gulped, but even that she tried to suppress. "Nisanti. The demon. It's keeping everyone from escaping. Not grabbing us yet. More like it wraps around anything solid, and tightens if it moves too much. If it notices us, it'll tell Hood and our one advantage here is gone."

Venom let out a growl in understanding. So they'd stood waiting in the shadows so long for something terrible that, now the terrible something had arrived, there was literally nothing they could do about it.

Cletus' body was barely worth the flesh on its bones. Even with symbiote traces in his blood cells, they all would have died along with him. And even if he was somehow still alive, the treatment from Agent Anti-Venom would have flushed it all out of him.

He wasn't Carnage. He was only Cletus. _Only _Cletus. _Only _a serial killer. Even tied down, even without legs (what was it about Venom that he kept making enemies out of guys who couldn't walk?), even without a symbiote in him… he was still one of the most deadly creatures now on planet Earth. As the Hood said, he was Earth's own personal demon.

But why had Hood brought him back? The only use he could give anyone was countless creative ways to end lives, but not with his own included. The only reason anyone would keep him around… was if they could bring him back.

Felicia had mentioned Hood had done exactly that, with Hammerhead.

He was standing above the body. Something was in his hand, glinting like that knife in his eyes but also glowing like Felicia's. She'd already realised what was about to happen. She'd seen it once for herself, after all.

If it wasn't for the symbiote over his mouth, Eddie would have been vomiting by now.

Shocker was crying for his mom. The Hood paid him a small mercy in ignoring him as he prepared to drag the devil back from hell.

"Cletus Kasady, the Red Slayer, bringer of Maximum Carnage… rise again."

To contrast the hushed reverence in his voice, or maybe just to be dramatic, the Hood slammed down the sharp point that was clutched in both his hands. Right into Cletus' chest, through the bleached skin, down into his hollow ribcage. Venom could smell the old blood welling around the empty wound. Even after being stranded in space, scrubbed with Anti-Venom, stored in some demonic pocket dimension and pulled back out to be paraded by a guy wearing a cape that hardly fitted him, he was still so full of blood. Maybe he took in all that he'd spilled for himself, hoarding the viscera to keep himself going while the rest of him continued to rot away.

The dagger glowed even brighter, as white as the broken skin around it, and blinding like the summoning fires. This time, neither Venom nor Felicia looked away. Not even Shocker could, with his eyes wrenched open by the contortions of his own pain, written all over his face and embossed through the fabric of his mask.

They watched the light die. And, in its place, they watched the rebirth slowly blink itself into consciousness. Water surged from his eye sockets, likely the first time in his life that Cletus had ever cried. They weren't tears, though. It was the standard start-up procedure for any human body, confirming that despite everything, Cletus Kasady was indeed still one of them. In pure physiology, the human body did not care who was living in it, what thoughts went through the brain, what it did with its hands, or any weapons those hands were holding. If it had eyes in its sockets, it would flood them to stop them going blind. If it had limbs, it would keep them moving until the muscles atrophied. If it had organs, it would keep them working, even with stomach acid falling through holes in the lining or the skin so cold that all the blood beneath it was like slush.

As long as it was alive, it would keep being alive.

And Cletus Kasady, despite the tireless efforts of his entire species, was alive. And he was only so eager to prove it so, once his eyes managed to roll down and his mouth remembered that it had a voice.

"...WHERE'S MY FUCKIN' LEGS?!"

In the wake of Cletus' reawakened fury, the Hood was giggling. That was the only word for it. He was practically jumping up and down, ecstatic that he'd succeeded in bringing a monster back from the dead while said monster was trying to force his way out of the thick belts tying him to the slab at his back. His hair lashed back and forth with each brutal shove forwards, whipping his forehead like how Hood's cloak whipped around the rest of him. He ignored Cletus' cursing, as well as Shocker's muffled weeping. Everyone else was silent. What were you supposed to say when you'd just witnessed an awful miracle?

"Welcome back to the land of the not-dead, Mr Kasady," Hood greeted, as if Cletus had just woken up from anaesthesia. The response he received was like a rabid bark from a dog.

"No shit I ain't dead, ya' fucking Red Riding Hood retard!" This was the only thing Cletus would stop trying to break himself free for, to spit at someone in his way. "Since ya' clearly ain't deaf, I'm gonna ask again; _where's my fuckin' legs_?! Where's…?!"

Cletus wasn't growling anymore. His lip gradually uncurled, falling flat across his jagged teeth before the rest of his mouth angled sharply downwards like it had just imploded. The realisation was kicking in. Venom hated how quickly he recognised it, that he recognised it at all.

"Where's… my symbiote?'' The panic was coming now, flooding Cletus' lungs while he struggled to remember how they worked without help. "Where… I can't… I can't feel…"

He was searching for it. That distant look over his eyes, settling on top of the water like oil, he couldn't see out while he was busy tearing himself apart looking for his other half. If his hands were free he might have been clawing at the wound on his chest, even as it was healing over the stone that brought back him into a world he didn't want to be part of.

A world where his symbiote wasn't there.

Venom would have been smiling, because he knew exactly how painful that was and how much Cletus deserved every second of it. But he couldn't. He just hugged Symby closer to himself.

The Hood wasn't smiling, either. Even his cloak seemed disappointed, now hanging limp around him while Cletus was seized by a mute horror that for once he hadn't helped create.

"That's… strange. The symbiote should have been revived as well…" Whatever he was about to do to try and fix the problem, he only got as far as raising his arms before he was interrupted. Not by Shocker's sigh of relief, shared by almost everyone else around him. Not by Venom finally giving into his impatience, his fury at being cornered by something he couldn't even see.

The final piece of the puzzle was here, and he waited until now to announce himself.

"I'm afraid Kasady no longer has the Carnage symbiote."

Not needing magic tricks to make himself seen and heard, Norman Osborn approached from behind the Hood, as if emerging from behind a stage curtain made from the smoke covering the ceiling of the morgue. Though he wore a thin suit, he wasn't shivering in the cold. Because that wasn't all he was wearing. Venom was the only one there who knew that.

Though, from the look on Cletus' face with his breakdown put on pause, he seemed to have clocked it too.


	25. Night 17 Part 2

Cletus knew where Carnage was.

Venom knew.

Felicia knew.

From how they all tried to shuffle backwards, as much as their demonic restraints would let them, every other criminal there knew. Even Shocker, finally dropped to the floor just before he tore his vocal cords apart with his last breaths, had stopped sobbing so loudly because he knew. He knew that this Carnage was even worse than he'd first thought, and pleading for anything would only piss him off.

The only one who hadn't figured it all out was the one standing closest to Norman, his cloak bunched around him like a shield, for all the little it could protect him. And, from how he instantly pulled out a pair of firearms from under his shoulders, he looked like he really wanted to piss Norman off.

"How nice of you to join us, Norman," the Hood greeted, in as tone as evenly levelled as the twin pistols aimed at each corner of Osborn's grin.

"Sorry we missed you at the party."

Norman shrugged, so dismissive of everything else around him that not even his suit seemed to hinder his movements. As if it wasn't heavy fabric at all.

"And what a party it was…" Osborn spoke as someone who'd seen the chaos firsthand, who had _caused _the chaos. "I imagine your hands would have been full with all the police and their pet superheroes. I heard that even Venom showed up! Guess everyone was wanting in on the Great Symbiote Heist… too bad they all came just a little too late."

Norman had a habit of gesturing as he spoke far too slowly, and the Hood matched each movement to where his guns were aiming. Now they were centered on Osborn's wrists, splayed out on either side of the man as if he'd lazily crucified himself.

"Correct me if my memory is just a little fuzzy, Norman, cause... I recall that you told me, in fact, you _guaranteed, _that the Carnage symbiote was still in Kasady." The Hood jerked one arm towards the restrained psychopath in gesture, who looked between Hood and Norman as if he was trying to decide which one would be easier to kill, like choosing what would taste best at a buffet. Either some kind of magic was keeping him shut up, or he was biding his time, waiting for his imposter to reveal himself. At least that kept him from noticing anything else, like Venom trapped by uncertainty just a hundred feet away. Not just uncertainty at what was stopping him from moving, but at what the hell was even going on. The Hood knew Norman had infiltrated his gang? Or, had Norman put the pieces in place just to keep an eye on him, while he orchestrated the trade-over of Cletus' body?

Even with two brains, Venom still couldn't decipher the full picture yet. Felicia had leaned in slightly closer to the scene, knowing the only way to figure it out was to keep listening. Venom wished he had even half of her patience.

"And I also recall," the Hood went on, balancing each gun between the two threats he'd brought down upon himself, "that that guarantee was the whole reason I took him in the first place... and that I promised you a very painful penalty for breaking it."

Norman let his eyebrows take over his forehead, surprise that was even more feigned than any fear he might have shown.

"A lot more painful than a bullet between the eyes, I imagine?" Norman spoke like a weary father indulging his kid's latest hobby. The implication was lost on Hood.

"You'd be correct." He cocked the guns, and shifted its aim downwards. "These are more for your kneecaps."

Norman only had one eyebrow deployed now, a single ridge raised in mockery as the eyes beneath sparkled, as laughter cracked through the hard ice that had settled in the air, and over everyone else held captive before him. He turned to address them all, as if only just noticed they were there.

"Is this how he's been keeping you all in line?" he asked, both to those he hired and those he'd probably never met. "Guns? Empty threats?" He laughed again, a cackle that perfectly suited him that devolved into a giggle that Venom recognised as soon as it started to leak from his throat, that would have frozen him still even if they were trapped in a desert instead of a freezer. The worst possible combination of Goblin and Carnage, who turned to face the Hood again with a hybrid grin. "Come on, Parker, I know you're better than that! Where's that demon you wanted to show off? Where's the 'hordes from hell' you promised?"

While Norman stood there tearing down Hood's empire word by word, Venom latched onto only one of them.

"**His name is **_**Parker**_**?" **He managed to hiss his disbelief in Felicia's ear, and she nodded.

"It's a common one for pains in the ass," she explained. If Venom had known his name was Parker this whole time, he might have known better than to get involved in any of this bullshit.

Or, alternatively, he would have rushed out and strangled him on sight, just on the principle of his name being Parker. Difficult decisions that were too late to make now.

He noticed Felicia was moving, though. Not very much, just shifting her position, more like testing how far she could stretch against whatever was keeping them rooted in their hiding place. Venom tried it to, willing the symbiote to reach out if it could.

"_**Can't move far, Eddie… something is holding me down. Can't see what it is. Can't slip between it." **_But even though Symby couldn't move much further than an inch from her host, it was still a sign that their bonds were weakening. The Hood was getting distracted, so the demon was too. Just when Venom was thinking that Felicia had just made up the whole demon thing to stop him charging out ahead of her.

"Never mind them, Norman." The Hood floated, teleported, somehow appeared instantly in front of Osborn with nothing more than a flap of his cloak, and the cape spread out all around either side of him like a wall of fabric, as if to block him from his audience. Luckily Venom and Felicia weren't caught behind it. They watched Hood train his guns once again on Norman, but they were more like toys against what they knew Osborn was capable of.

"This, like every other time, is between you and me. We had a deal, and you broke it." The Hood tried to raise his voice without magic now, as if he doubted how well it would work on someone like Osborn, but all it did was make it sound so much more fragile. Like it was glass that could be broken with just a glare. Had Norman really caught him off guard that badly?

Osborn was still smiling. He took one step forward, and Hood flinched before he remembered he had weapons. By the time he did, he had no reason to use them. He was more interested in hearing Osborn explain himself than blowing his kneecaps off, at least for now.

"Yes, yes, I admit," Norman was saying rather flippantly, "I'd made a lot of claims I knew you'd fall for… just like the old days, huh? And why stop at only two, Parker? Didn't I also 'guarantee' that the body could only be retrieved from Alchemax during a _very_ specific time window? Almost _suspiciously _specific, wouldn't you say?"

Another step forwards, but Hood didn't react to this one. He wasn't aiming the guns anymore. He was just holding them, pointing them. They might as well not have been there, because they didn't stop Norman coming within point blank range, to give Hood the final hint to what he'd gotten himself into.

"Almost as if I was the one who put it there in the first place…"

Under the shadow of his cowl, the Hood's face hadn't changed. But his cloak sagged, falling limp around his shoulders, no longer restricting the view of his gang. Some had managed managed to make some distance between themselves and the place no one wanted to be near. Others, those actually loyal to the Hood, stopped anyone from making a break for it. They gave their leader the precious few seconds he needed to realise what had really happened.

"You... _planted_ the body," Hood said slowly, trying to mask the hesitation as disbelief rather than confusion, "and told us about it so we'd crash the Alchemax event for you?"

Norman nodded once, with a smile so condescending that about half the people there would have been reminded of their fathers by it (with Eddie definitely included).

"Took you long enough to figure it out. Not that I was expecting you to. But those aren't the questions you should be asking, Parker." In just two strides, Norman was close enough to the Hood to see the details of what lurked under the cowl, to see the results of all his careful, painstakingly executed emotional torture not-so-hidden in those shadows. "What you _should_ be asking is," he advised, "if Cletus doesn't have the symbiote, then _where_ _is it_?"

If Hood hadn't been thinking of that before, it was now all he _could_ think about. The shock of realisation hit him like a slap across the face, the impact so hard that his cowl almost slipped off his head. He was reeling, though his cloak covered up his struggle to keep balance. A wind seemed to catch underneath it, whipping it around him like a protective shell, no longer obscuring everyone behind him.

And with the veil gone, Norman struck out. Not to the man standing his ground in front of him, though. Something long and red and jagged and all too familiar to Venom whipped out from Norman's hand, and a second later it was pulling a cowering man dressed in poorly-assembled kevlar plates to his side. He'd been immersed deep in the crowd, so deep that being dragged out had carved a wide path all the way through them. The criminals lined the path cautiously, not filling in the empty space despite how they all pressed together without it, watching one of their own being used as a sacrifice once again. Somewhere among them, Shocker would have been glad it wasn't him this time.

"Speak up, boy," Norman ordered. "I can't hear you all the way over there with your heart stuck in your throat."

The dead man gulped, trying to swallow his organs back down into his ribcage as if it could protect him from the black talons holding onto his collar. "I… I-I-I was just… asking…" Another gulp. The organs didn't want to stay down. "A-ain't… you the Green Goblin?"

Norman inclined his head, as if the force of the cackle bursting out his mouth was so strong that it knocked his neck back. "No, no, I've long outgrown _green…_" The black from his clawed hands dribbled down the rest of his arm, like oil encasing him, mixing with his blood as it seemed to bubble up through the lining of his suit and the skin underneath.

"Nowadays… I much prefer **the color** _**red."**_

And it was all over him. All over them both, as it oozed out from Norman's fingertips. The man trapped between them was screaming, but only for a few seconds. After that there was nothing but gurgles of blood from the man's slack mouth, matching the pulse that flooded out of the new hole in his neck, with another in the back of his head to match. Norman pulled his hand back, and a blade like sharpened charcoal was slid out of the bone and muscle it had silently cleaved its way through.

Once it cleared the skull, the corpse fell to the floor.

"Jesus Christ…" Felicia's whisper was almost masked by the hisses of shock from a hundred other mouths. Venom knew she wasn't squeamish, but this… well, this was Carnage. Even a Marine would have been forgiven for losing their lunch in front of the likes of him.

Blood pooled beneath the body, quickly congealing in the cold, but it was nothing compared to the crimson that now dressed Norman's body. Because that was all that was left of Norman now. The Carnage symbiote or, as Symby and Eddie knew her, Red, didn't need anything else from him.

Red pointed ears. Red talons on the toes. A sinuous red tail that dragged over the first corpse as Norman walked, stalked, crawled towards the Hood. He didn't move at all. No one did. No one _could, _as Venom quickly discovered. It was as if Norman had just slipped into a painting, the only one able to crawl across the canvas, to paint every inch the same shade of red so he could lose himself in it. Or, more accurately, like the Hood had intensified his magic on the place. To make sure no one could abandon him to the monster he'd brought inside.

"**Parker… always did hate people with that name."** Molten flames seemed to dribble from Norman's mouth whenever he opened it, smoke literally drooling from between jagged black teeth. It wisped around Hood's nose, slipping under his cowl, daring him to splutter on it. When that didn't work, Norman's grin peeled back. Somehow the man's face was still whole underneath.

"You see, boy," he drawled, holding his tail in one hand and twirling it idly, "when I found out about Kasady's empty husk out there in space, I knew of only one way to bring him back to the land of the living." He slapped the knife-like tip of his tail against the other hand, chuckling as it then lashed out towards where Kasady was still lying prone and watchful and only slightly intrigued by the bloodshed (whether he was frozen by demon magic or a rare moment of lucidity, Venom could never tell).

"The Norn stones..." Norman licked his lips, and even his tongue seemed to be forked as it flicked out. "The same ones you used to resurrect Hammerhead when he turned out to be convenient. I couldn't use them, though. I'd tried once before and they simply... didn't work for me." He shrugged. "Asgardian relics, you know? Always so picky… so, I needed someone else to do it for me. And you, my friend, were only so eager to help out… with the right encouragement."

Whatever that encouragement had been, the Hood had fallen for it. The regret was seeped into the shadows around his face. What had he really expected to come out of helping Osborn? What had he expected from reviving _Cletus_ of all people, other than having it all blow up in his face?

Even if Venom was able to move, he didn't think he'd make any attempt against Osborn. Not if it meant protecting the Hood. Because, really, what the _fuck_ did he think was going to happen? He must have been as stupid as the other Parker. At least this one didn't hide his eyes behind spandex, so it was obvious that he'd just realised how fucked he was.

Yes, Venom recognised that mask of horror well, even as it dawned on a face cast in shadow. Most people put it on when they realised he was standing behind them. Then came the sad attempts to speak or scream, the lips fused together in fear with the tongue trapped behind them flailing in vain for something to say, something, _anything _that could save them from what they think is to come.

That wasn't what the Hood was doing, though. He knew exactly what he wanted to snarl at Norman, the exact syntax of the curses he would hurl at him if he could.

But he couldn't. His cloak fell flat around him, lifeless, nothing to obscure the two arms, and the guns they held, hanging usessly at either side of him. The arms were not limp, but forced to remain there by steel cast over his joints. The demon was holding him in place.

Venom had recognised that, too. Symby did the same thing to Eddie. Sometimes for his own good. Sometimes.

But usually just to make him hurt people better.

"What's wrong, Parker?" Norman asked, making a mockery of concern as he angled his head to watch Hood's twisted scowl from below his chin. "Feeling a little _stiff? _Turned the temperature a little too low and went and frozen yourself?"

The Hood could only glare down at him, barely able to even move his eyes as they started to gather furious tears. Because, like everyone else around him, he was being restrained. Not held back or tied down to a surface like Cletus, nothing as primitive as that. He didn't need to be tied when the demon had its hooks deep into his musculature, his bones and sinews, working them like puppet strings. The strings were taut, and the hand holding them from above was steady. The Hood couldn't even twitch in protest.

Norman had the end of his goblin tail twisted around Hood's left wrist, edging the pointed tip along the trigger of the gun as he delighted in how much the man hated him, how badly he wanted to pull the trigger himself.

Then when the risk bored Norman, he pulled back without bothering to disarm him. He didn't even look at the Hood anymore, ignoring all the effort he'd put into trying to kill him with just a stare, the only weapon he was still able to use.

"Seems to me like that demon in your head doesn't want to help out the losing team," Norman mused as he walked away, towards Cletus still splayed out on his sacrificial slab. "After all, didn't you just say it fed on death? I think it realised pretty quickly where it can get a lot more of it from. So you just stand there like a good boy, Hood. The adults have business to attend to." Then he stopped, and his tail shot up straight as he remembered something. He turned back towards the Hood, but looked right past him and his pathetic cape flapping feebly, the only thing not wrenched into place by demonic hands.

"That goes for the rest of you, too!" Norman ordered to everyone else, as if they even had the choice to disobey. "No interrupting!"

He was taking his time with reaching Cletus, pausing to prod the still-leaking corpse that lay in his way. Maybe to force the psycho to take in who the _new_ Carnage was. For the first time since he hid in the undergrowth, Venom felt like he could look away for longer than a second.

"**Felicia…?"**

She had a gloved hand clamped over her mouth, to stop herself screaming or to just mask the clouds of breath that would form in the frost. Even now, caught in the middle of a magic-alien-murder conspiracy, it was hard for Eddie not to imagine taking her breath into his again. Something to look forward too if they survived, at least.

"The demon's not focusing so much on us anymore," Felicia whispered. "But... I don't think we should move yet."

Venom didn't nod, but he didn't disagree either. Symby was outweighing Eddie's desire to rush in and get them all killed, if only by constantly reminding him that Norman as Carnage was still a complete enigma. He had most of Cletus' usual tricks, like the solid symbiote protrusions that didn't need to fly out to be capable of piercing flesh. But everything else had yet to be seen. The tail was new, and as creepy as anything else. If it could stab as well as claws, then sneaking up on Norman wasn't an option. And the smoke that trailed from his mouth might not have just been cosmetic. Too many unknowns to make a move just yet, including why Norman had gone to such lengths to bring Cletus back when he already had his symbiote.

There was another reason why Felicia was against going out there, though. One she never would have admitted even though Venom could feel it radiating off of her, coiled in an aura that was harsher than the icy chill surrounding them, the same reason why she was sweating despite it.

She was scared. She was so, so scared. Just as she'd been when they first faced Carnage together, except she'd hid it much better back then under bitter moral arguments with Spider-Man.

She didn't want to be just another corpse left on the ground, one of the countless Carnage casualties. She didn't want to come so close to death again.

Whether they were leftovers from her brain that Symby was thrumming through Eddie's own or just flashes across whatever fragments of the symbiote were still floating in her bloodstream, there was no denying how much it hurt to recognise the feeling. How he'd felt in the long, long seconds after the first cancer diagnosis. So desperately not wanting to die.

Then again, that hadn't lasted very long for him.

Venom almost suggested that they leave. Just wait for the demon to let them go, and slip away. Leave the killers in their morgue to do as they wished. Go somewhere where the only hands on themselves would be each others.

But, if she'd said yes to any of that, she wouldn't be the Felicia he wanted to be with. And she would never say yes. If anything, she'd slap him for even thinking of it, and he'd thank her for it.

Neither of them were heroes, but Goddamn if they weren't gonna try and act like one.

Something squeezed Venom's hand as he decided that. He hadn't realised he was holding Felicia's, but her fingers were tight around his claws, folding between them like interlocking chainmail. She was hard as steel, even as her tremors passed up through Venom's wrist, through the symbiote to the skin underneath. Eddie shivered with her, as they watched Norman grin down at Cletus as if he was looking down at a mirror.

"Cletus Kasady… the original Carnage. New York's own red menace. I don't believe we've been properly introduced." He affected a bow, even sweeping his tail respectfully across the ground even though it looked more like he was mocking Cletus for being forced horizontal. "Norman Osborn, founder of Oscorp, former Green Goblin and the latest version of… well, I haven't decided what to call myself yet. 'Carnage' doesn't suit me as well as it does you."

Cletus was calm. He looked like Osborn had just farted next to him and his teeth were bared like a rabid wolverine's, but he wasn't thrashing or cursing or trying to tear any throats or eyeballs out yet. He was as calm as a Kasady could possibly be. Venom suspected he was going to see something terrible very, very soon, and had to resist the instinct to look away before it inevitably happened.

Though, strangely, Cletus seemed to be waiting for the storm just as Venom was. When it was clear that Norman wasn't going to usher one in all by himself, he snorted and spat something viscous towards the symbiote thief. Osborn leaned aside just in time to avoid it, though that didn't dampen Cletus' hostility.

"And just what the fuck are you doin' with my symbiote, Norman?" His fingers were the only parts not held in place by straps, and they were twitching. Anxious to rip into something, as he eyed Osborn's neck.

"I came into possession of it, while you were… indisposed," Osborn answered, perfectly reasonable as if he was just housesitting for a weekend. "I've been sheltering it and, rest assured, putting it to good use."

Norman's neck then bubbled red, and for a second Venom thought that Cletus had somehow managed to slit it wide open without even moving. But the blood flowed up, not down, covering Norman's head once again with a mask of living nightmares.

"**I'm quite pleased with the results myself. Though not as pleased as I am to finally meet you."**

Fire burned at the back of his throat, smoke literally belching from the furnace inside him. Cletus squinted and scrunched his nose in response.

"Smokin's bad for your health, y'know," he advised. "So is not gettin' the fuck outta my face."

The Goblin-Carnage mouth erupted. There was an awful sound through the steam that billowed out from the red maw, almost enough to make Symby destabilise, and even when Venom identified it as just laughter it was agony to listen to. Once the smoke cleared, Norman's face had taken charge once again. It still didn't look human enough. He was so used to wearing masks that he didn't seem to know what to do without one.

"Also pleased to see that dying hasn't changed you one bit." He pulled roughly on whatever it was that made up his face, twisted it into a serious expression that somehow still allowed him to grin. Maybe he just couldn't stop, even if he wanted to.

"I'd like to make a deal with you, Cletus," he said, hands folded behind his back with his tail caught between them, the only sign that he was going to behave himself. "Now I don't know about you, but I count myself among New York's more… mentally unstable terrors. But you? _You_ top them all. Even I know that. The symbiote knows it, too. And why should it have to listen to someone who's only second best? See, I've learned a lot about humility since the last time I wore a mask. I've learned to recognise when I'm out of my depth. When I need… assistance."

It wasn't often, even when they were synchronised at the molecular level, that Symby and Eddie had the exact same thought at the exact same time. Venom's thoughts were the result of both separate beings coming to the same conclusion, no matter how they arrived at it, more like a mediator between the two. This was different from that. There was absolutely no disagreement in what they both thought of Norman's gambit.

"_**You're a fucking idiot."**_

Cletus was thinking the same too. He must have been. He was many many unspeakable things, but he wasn't as stupid as everyone thought he was. Not nearly as stupid as Norman, at least.

"Whaddaya mean, cornrows?" Cletus managed to sound convincingly hesitant. "You want, like… some kinda _partnership_? That what you're sayin'?"

"That's _exactly _what I'm saying, Cletus. Think about it. Once the…" Norman thought about it for a second, and stumbled over something in his head that he liked the sound of. "Once the _Red_ Goblin has New York on its knees, and that bitch of a daughter-in-law hanging from Brooklyn bridge, once I have Empire State turned into a funeral pyre… think of all the leftovers. All the people trying to run away. Only to find _you _waiting for them. No longer will they only be scared of Carnage, of the _alien_. No, when they die, they'll only be cursing one name. Cletus Kasady. Just like the old days, I'd imagine."

Norman had Cletus entranced, claws digging into his shoulder. For some reason Cletus wasn't trying to bite his claws off at the joints. The only thing he was doing with his teeth was bearing them wide, stretched stained ivory daggers displayed in a saliva-lined case. Or, whatever it was that was dribbling from the corner of his grin. More like foam skimmed from rabies.

"Gotta say… I like the sound of that, Ozzie," Cletus admitted. "And Red seems to have taken a shine to you. How 'bout you get me outta these cuffs and tell me all about it?"

"I'd be happy to."

"And some new legs too! How am I s'posed to murder everyone if I gotta crawl after 'em?!"

"Of course. I'll have the finest prosthesis crafted just for you." Norman sliced through the last restraint, completely blind to how he'd just shortened his lifespan to mere minutes (if he was lucky). He was too busy seeing red through Red. "Something with… weapons built right into it, yes… **and a video camera to record everyone's last moments as the knife goes in and their bones jut out through their-!"**

"Woah, woah, slow down, Ozzie." Cletus was rubbing his freed wrist, sitting up straight while the stumps of his legs jerked idly. "Before you go gettin' me too excited, I gotta ask you somethin' about that symbiote…"

Norman looked back at him with the points of his ears twitching, tail lashing, more confused than offended by the interruption. Even when Cletus grabbed his collar, latching onto some solid piece of symbiote that jutted up around Norman's neck, he didn't look as terrified as he should have. He didn't even seem to realise that the symbiote had made the handhold just for Cletus, not until Cletus was hissing into one of those restless ears.

"She ever tell you I don't play well with others?"

"**...She?"**

"Ooh, you still got a lot to learn about symbiotes, my man…"

Cletus still held onto the collar as he tutted, and as Norman's skin started to slough off like magma dripping heavily down his body.

"**What… w-what are you doing? What is-?!" **Norman's mask melted away as he screamed in protest, then agony as the symbiote violently vacated every single somatic cell at once. His tail shriveled, the fires sputtering like he'd just been drenched in water. Red was tearing herself free, wrenching muscle tissue and organs and anything else in her way aside, anything that stood between her and Cletus. Norman looked like he was having a seizure, and Cletus looked like he'd just fell into a slaughterhouse.

"That's it, baby! Come to daddy!" Symbiote skin seized his arms, chest, red tendrils crawling deep into his mouth as his tongue lashed in a wild glee, putting the Red Goblin tail to shame. Two rivers spilled from the stumps of his legs, and the red waves lashed together to form new tendons for their host that held the rest of him aloft, high above Norman who hung helpless in the grip of the awful power that had been leached out of him.

Whereas Symby covered Eddie like a reverse waterfall, liquid black that flowed effortlessly over him, her daughter was far more viscous. Congealed, like a stiff crimson gel that purposefully spat in gravity's face by flowing in all directions at once, spreading forth like a virus. A single lump of Carnage symbiote looked like it was forever on the edge of bursting like a vile bubble, and the bubbles swarmed around Cletus, drowning him in his own screaming laughter.

"OOOOOO**OOO****OOOOOOOH... IT FEELS **_**GOOD**_ **TO BE BACK!"**

Black stalactites framed the roar of gushing blood from Cletus'... his mouth? It didn't look like one at first. Then again, very little of Carnage made sense to someone who was watching him take form. It was only once you saw the abomination whole, when he was inches away from your heart, that he registered as something that could- that _did-_ actually exist in this universe. By that point, you usually no longer existed with him.

Only Symby kept Eddie breathing. Only Venom stopped him from running away. The last time Eddie had seen Carnage- not Cletus in a Poison shell, but pure and unmistakable Carnage- he'd been trying to bring forth an elder god into the world. And that wasn't even the worst thing he'd ever done. Venom had the feeling that, where Carnage was concerned, the worst was constantly yet to come.

"**Ozzie, you fuckin' dumbass!"** Carnage was still holding Obsorn, forcing him to dangle off the ground as he stood atop the slab that tried to tie him down. "**You really thought this was all your idea?!"** Then Carnage let him drop, a quick release of his claws that left the ruined goblin sprawled in icy dirt, rolling to stop halfway between the resurrection and the Hood. His cowled expression was unreadable, a slate wiped blank by the same force that hitched an anchor onto every one of his muscles, that kept Venom and Felicia from trying to do what they were there to do. At least, for now. Symby was still struggling against the invisible aura, and Felicia made no sign that it was gone. Venom had to wonder how much more death they'd have to witness before they could do anything about them, while Carnage kept enjoying the sound of his own voice, the feel of his new legs, and the sight of Norman crawling away.

"**I mean… bringing back the guy who's symbiote you stole, the **_**only**_ **guy who could **_**possibly**_ **take it back from you… cause you thought he'd help you out? It's completely fuckin' insane, dude! Even for you!"** Carnage had stepped off his perch and was taking his time in catching up to Norman, who was trying to crawl towards the Hood as if there was any safety to be offered there. He was a few inches away when a jagged hook launched out of Carnage's hand and caught his ankle, dragging him back across the cold dead grass. Carnage slammed a foot onto Norman's chest, driving the last of his frantic breaths away as he squatted down to get a better look at the other man's terror.

"**Nah, nah... the only one coco-fuckin'-crazy enough to come up with somethin' like that is… well, me. Or, maybe just that little part of me you thought you'd taken all for yourself."** Carnage held Norman's face between a thumb and forefinger, black claws daring him to flinch away and let them tear into his cheeks. "**This whole time Red was in your head, bouncin' round your skull, soakin' up all that juicy blood... and you didn't know a goddamn thing about her. Didn't even know her name. That how you treat ladies, Ozzie? I swear, it's guys like you who killed chivalry. You ignore a poor girl like that, and… well, she'll go lookin' for someone else. Someone that'll treat 'em right."**

Norman's eyes were closed, as if he could simply will himself to wake up somewhere else. When they finally cracked open, he didn't look surprised to still find himself staring up at Carnage's grinning maw.

"The symbiote…. used me?" he asked, finally putting the pieces together just as the Hood had done. "To get back to _you_?"

Carnage released his face, throwing his whole head aside at the neck as he leapt up with a flourish. "**Ding ding ding! Took ya' long enough! Gawd, I didn't think she'd eaten **_**that**_ **much of your brain!"** He giggled as Norman scrambled for another escape route, then remembered that there was someone else for him to torment.

"**And don't get me started on **_**you**_**, princess!"** Carnage pointed at the Hood, like an angry parent chastising a stepchild. "**How fuckin'** _**gullible**_ **do you need to be to think any of this was gonna go well for you!? What did you think was gonna happen?! You-"**

He stopped abruptly. His head was cocked, as if listening to one of the devils on his shoulder. Then he started snorting with laughter. "**Oh… ohhohoho, really? **_**Really**_**? That's why he did it? That's fuckin' hilarious!"** Carnage was actually doubled over, splattering black ooze from his mouth that slinked back into his body when it hit the ground. The Hood's cloak flapped once as he was forced to wait for Carnage to recover, and the hood itself slipped back slightly. The skin underneath was white as bone, the eyes like giant glistening wounds. And he gulped when Carnage straightened once again.

"**Newsflash, asshole!"** Carnage yelled. "**We ain't marriage counsellors! If you wanna make that spook living in you your bitch again, you're gonna need to try a lot harder than stealing someone else's girl!"**

So _that _was what Parker was trying to do. Just like Norman had taken the symbiote for himself, he thought it was really that easy. Whatever he hoped to use it for was irrelevant. Not only was he arrogant enough to think he could take one of the most dangerous creatures in the galaxy for himself, he thought he could do it without the current entity inside him objecting.

Considering that Parker now looked like he was being choked by his own cloak, he'd just been proven wrong.

"He's… h-he's lying, Nisanti, I… I-I would never… never betray you like-!" The last of his pleas were lost in gags and coughs as he tried to breathe through the force pulping his windpipe. Nisanti was so preoccupied with shrivelling its host's lungs that it didn't stop his hands trying to claw the crushing fabric away, nor his feet kicking out under him in panic. It didn't need to hold Hood down if it was trying to kill him. It was no longer obeying orders, so it didn't care what anyone else around it was doing.

And that was very, very good for Venom.

"The demon's retreating." Felicia confirmed it in a whisper, finally letting out a deep breath she must have been holding coiled in her throat. Symby tested the air around them once again, and passed a tendril right through it. Venom shook the frost from his limbs.  
"**Safe to move yet?" **he asked.

"Almost…" Felicia wasn't looking at the Hood, or even Carnage. The crowd, still held hostage this entire time in silence, was just starting to realise they were free. A stampede to get out would come soon, once the first person took the risk for everyone else and made a break for it. The best time to strike would be during all the confusion.

Venom knew it made perfect sense, yet he still snarled impatiently. How much fucking longer until they could _do something_?! Just sitting there, watching the whole city's demise march closer and closer with every second that Carnage was still alive for, he felt useless, as useless as… well, as a certain spider.

Maybe patience was just what heroes had to put up with.

"**Yeah yeah, just keep it down, you two."** Carnage left the Hood and Nisanti to work out their differences with a dismissive wave. "**As for you, Normie…"** Osborn hadn't gotten very far in the time Carnage had given him to save his skin, probably because he was still crawling instead of trying to run. A thorned tendril grabbed his leg again, holding him in place while Carnage flipped him over onto his back.

"**You mentioned getting me a new pair of legs."** Carnage traced an elongated claw over Norman's kneecaps. "**You don't look like you're usin' these ones."**

Venom actually wouldn't have minded seeing the Green Goblin de-legged (maiming wasn't the same as killing, after all… right?). He was sure, even if they would have denied it, a few Spider-themed heroes wouldn't have minded it either.

But being a hero wasn't about doing what you didn't _mind_ doing, or could _tolerate_ doing. It was doing what you _had _to do, no matter what. Venom had to stop Carnage from hurting anyone else, including people who deserved it. Venom had to kill him.

That was why he had to stop him right now.

That was why he had to reveal himself.

Also, because the first guy had just tried his luck in running for the trees, and now everyone else was clambering to follow at the front before they got caught at the back. The stampede had triggered just a second before Felicia gave the signal he was waiting for. It wasn't a cry, or a whistle. It was just a simple gesture from her finger, flicking out towards where Venom was needed. That was all it took for him to shrug off the muscle cramps and finally move. He threw himself out of cover, launching from the ground to land metres away with a destabilising impact that actually managed to knock Carnage off balance.

"**Let him go, Cletus!" **

Carnage had lost his grip on Norman anyway, but hearing Venom's voice made him take one more precious second to register who it was. And when he did, he was far too happy to see him.

"**Heya, pops! Did ya' miss me?"**

"**We won't if you stand still."**

As Venom went flying from a red-thorned fist in his jaw, it occurred to him that that had sounded much better in his head.


	26. Night 17 Part 3

Venom recovered fairly quickly from the sucker punch that sent him slamming into a tree. At least, he liked to think he did. Truthfully he had no idea how long it took him to shake off the concussion that was still rippling through his symbiote when managed to pull himself upright, amidst the shards of broken bark embedded into his back.

'_Gonna feel that in the morning… if we survive that long.' _Venom snarled as symbiote oozed into the wounds in Eddie's skin, forcing out the shrapnel as they healed over, and grabbed a hefty branch to shield himself from the black claws that came ripping through it a second later.

"**Not that I'm not happy t'see ya', Dad,"** Carnage grunted as he tossed the broken halves of wood behind him. "**It's just usually the parents don't come along for the honeymoon."** An axe-head weighed down his left hand as it came crashing towards Venom's head. He wrenched his neck away, but the red blade managed to shear away some symbiote globs that lagged behind the skull they tried to protect. Symby gritted her teeth through Eddie's, shielding him from her own pain while pulling him to safety. Black tendrils threw up more shredded chunks of tree bark as shields that were shattered in seconds by the ever-changing armament that Carnage was throwing against them. Axes, knives, spears, even what looked like a harpoon attached to a thick red cord all came firing at Venom as he was forced to scramble backwards in defense mode. With a particularly hard throw of an entire stump yanked out of the ground by the roots, he managed to put enough distance between himself and Carnage that he could take a few seconds worth of cover up in the frozen canopy.

He squatted on the widest branch of the thickest tree he could find, with Symby forcing his breathing still while she rippled against all the debris sticking to her. And as Venom sat there, waiting for Carnage's approach, it very quickly occurred to him that he didn't actually have a plan for dealing with him. In the heat of the moment, so desperate to finally get out and do something before he got leashed like a dog again, he'd kinda thought that he could just crush his skull and be done with it. But it had been so long since Venom- not Eddie in another symbiote and not Symby in another host, the original undiluted _Venom-_ had faced Carnage down that he'd completely forgotten what the usual strategy was. Usually with symbiotes only two things were guaranteed to cause enough pain to disable them; fire, and sonics. Carnage, however, had managed to endure fire before. So the only surefire way to weaken him would be sonics, and Venom had no idea where the hell to get his hands on anything like that while stuck in a magic snow globe in Central Park.

"_**Red has been planning this for a long time," **_Symby said, the first words spoken since she and Eddie went so eagerly running out to their deaths. "_**She's made sure there's nothing around here that can harm her."**_

'_Is she vulnerable?' _Eddie asked silently, already knowing what the answer would be.

"_**Right now… no. She's as strong as I've ever seen her."**_

Of course she was. Just as Eddie had felt invincible after he reunited with Symby, Cletus and Red were now at the peak of their strength, and their brutality. They had a lot of kills to catch up on, and they were hoping to start with Venom. Until he figured out another way or unless one of the others who were dumb enough to come here tonight happened to be carrying high-frequency sound emitters for the explicit purpose of aiming them at an alien psycho's face, all Venom could do was keep him busy, maybe tire him out.

And, above all, keep him away from Felicia.

Though... where was she? Venom tried to scan the clearing for any sign of her, looking towards where he was sure he was punched away from for any wisp of white hair in the wind, but the second he took his eyes off the undergrowth below was the same second that Carnage caught up to him.

"**No time for hide 'n seek, Dad!"** With a red sinuous rope lashed around Venom's ankle, Carnage yanked him out of the tree, letting every other branch whip at him on the way down. Sharp edges tore holes through Symby faster than she could repair them, and they came too fast for her to push them out of the way. When Venom hit the ground, he couldn't even tell which way was up or down. All he knew was that he was staring up at black, at black night… sky?

He blinked to be sure, but Symby recognised the patterns of the stars instantly. The bottomless mist that had obscured them was gone, and so too was the icy cold that it encased. Whatever magic Hood had put over the place was fleeing, just like all his terrified goons. Venom only caught a glimpse of them all piling on top of each other, desperate to get the hell out of this hell, before Carnage hooked claws into his chest and hauled him up like he weighed less than his conscience.

"**Gotta say, pops, ya' ain't really givin' me much of a challenge here."** Carnage held him at a distance, digging black thorns into his throat as the red tendrils swarmed around his neck. "**What's the matter? You and Mom gettin' a divorce or somethin'?"**

Venom was only half listening to his spawn. He could hear Carnage laughing at his own joke, the slimy pink coating of his mouth glistening as his jaw hung open and moved like a stuttering piston. Then the jaw was clamped closed and he frowned through jagged black peaks, though the laughter hadn't stopped.

"**What's so funny?"**

Venom wheezed through the barbed wire still choking him, and only then realised he'd been laughing too. "**We once said we'd feel bad about beating up a guy without legs," **he answered. "**We were wrong."**

Carnage's left eye engorged, the replacement for raising an eyebrow since all of his face was hidden beneath a congealed red crust, and on his right Venom lashed out with a tendril from behind. The tendril didn't get far before being caught in Carnage's grip, the blackness slipping fluidly back between his fingers in contrast to the solid red that had built claws to slice them apart. Venom hadn't expected the attack to hit, though. He was just expecting it to be a good distraction, and it was. Carnage was so occupied with watching Symby retreat that he never saw the fist that came cracking against the side of his head, a bulbous mass of black that sent him rolling back across the ground in a heap of squirming red. The noose around Venom's neck loosened, and he tore the rest of it away with his other hand. The red cords flaked away and crumbled to dust around the crush of Venom's fist, and the symbiote around Carnage seemed to flinch from the abuse. Not Cletus, though. Cletus, like Eddie through Symby, was still grinning through Red's teeth. While his head was bowed, Venom took the chance to camouflage himself against the dark. It wasn't so much like going invisible, more like moulding himself to the shadows around him, but with how dark the sky above was he might as well have been invisible. Carnage, having yanked himself upright, didn't seem to mind that his opponent had seemingly disappeared. He'd know Venom was still nearby anyway. Red would tell him how close she could sense him.

"**That's more like it, Dad!"** He spat something on the ground that lay between them both, and pulled out a thin blade between each finger on one hand. "**C'mon, let's see who loses their eyes first!"**

Standing still and wreathed in the shadows, Venom was almost eager to take him up on that offer, knowing that as long as Carnage was preoccupied with brutalising the biggest target he could find he at least wouldn't be looking for anyone else. And, of course, blinding the fucker was appealing in its own way. But he was far from the only one there who had some grudges to take out on Carnage.

"Kasadyyyyyyy!"

The screech came from somewhere above. Venom's head snapped towards it, heedless of how he'd just given away his position by the rushed movement. But Carnage was just as curious to see who the new arrival was.

Well, not a new arrival, just an old one getting upset that no one was paying attention to him.

"**Ah fuck me, are you **_**still**_ **here?!"** Carnage was not impressed by the sight of Norman on his goblin glider, hovering twenty feet off the ground and burning a hole near the sky with its jets. Venom was just grateful for the chance to slip away for real and try to come up with a less suicidal plan.

"Hand over the symbiote, Cletus," Norman bellowed over the distance and the roar of his glider, "and I just might let you leave here with the rest of your limbs still attached to you!" With so much confidence jammed into him he almost made Venom forget that he'd been cowering and crawling for his life just a few minutes ago.

...A few minutes? Was that really all it was? Christ, it felt like he'd been around Carnage for at least an hour. Then again, Cletus was the kind of guy to have that effect on anyone who managed to survive being around him for longer than a minute. Maybe the temporal distortion would fix itself once Venom got himself way the hell away. He slipped behind Carnage, slow enough to not set off Red's senses, creating distance so he could build momentum for an ambush while he was distracted.

"**Aw, you want her that bad, Ozzie?"** Carnage was yelling back at Osborn. "**Well, you'll have to do better than that to impress her. C'mon, Casanova, get down here and fight like a man!"** He had two wide scythes on his hands, though neither of them were long enough to reach up to the glider. Maybe, in a rare moment of clarity from Cletus through the veil of his bloodlust, he was so paranoid of Red being stolen again that he didn't want to risk touching anything goblin-related.

"You really think I'm dumb enough to give up my one advantage like that?" Norman laughed at Cletus' lazy gambit. "I don't fucking think so!"

"**Then I ain't even gonna bother killin' you, ya' fucking pussy!"**

So it was going to be one of _those _stalemates, where both ends were too proud to back down and too cowardly to charge in. Cletus would be trying to intentionally enrage Osborn enough to force him to attack first, while at the same time Osborn would be driving against Cletus' impatience, knowing he couldn't just fling bombs down at him for fear of destroying the symbiote. Both creatures were so stubborn that Venom had plenty of time to work out a plan of attack, and once he was sure he was far enough into the trees that neither of them would know he was there-

"Both of you still alive, huh?"

He promptly almost jumped right out of his symbiote, flinching away from the sudden whisper beside him even though he recognised it as Felicia's. Her eyes twinkled from more than just the lenses in them, and her hair was not nearly as unkempt as it should have been. Venom resisted the urge to brush his claws through it, just to hold her close. There'd be time for that later- at least, he hoped there'd be.

"**What did we miss?"**

"Hood started fighting back against Nisanti while you and Cletus were busy tearing through the forest. He got knocked out pretty quickly, so I swiped these off of him." Felicia held out her hand like it was a pedestal, just as Norman's shrieks reached a new crescendo.

"I will give you ten seconds to willingly surrender that symbiote, you piece of shit hillbilly hick, before I fucking carpet bomb you into-!"

"**Oooooh, threats from the guy floating up so high so no-one can see him piss himself! 'Scuse me while I look for a fuck to give!"**

Venom blocked out the two of them and studied Felicia's palm. It took him a moment to recognise what the sharp, thin rocks were supposed to be, even when a glow ebbed out from them all. At first he thought it was just light reflected from Felicia's eyes but, no, the glow was from _within _the stones. The same glow that was now within Cletus' chest.

"As well as bringing back the dead, they also seem to give Hood his magic somehow," Felicia revealed, before depositing them back in the safety of her suit. "No stones, no magic, no shield, and nothing to stop Norman from bringing in his toys or everyone from running for the exit."

Felicia was looking past Venom, and when he followed her gaze he saw that that was exactly what everyone was doing, all of them bursting towards the direction they'd both entered from. But there were so many pressed together amidst the trees, with the remnants of Hood's loyal retinue trying to block the way out for everyone else, that hardly any of them could actually get out. Everyone was too afraid of being targeted by Norman or Carnage that they didn't dare separate from the crush of people to try and leave from another direction.

Well, almost everyone. The one familiar guy pushing himself to the back was just more stupid than afraid.

"HEY, OSBITCH!" Boomerang, with no Shocker in sight to try and hold him back, marched out wielding his signature weapon like it was a mast for a battle flag. "Consider this my resignation!"

Though Venom felt bad for the guy painting a bullseye for himself right on his boomerang-face (although he was sure the real Bullseye was a lot less pathetic than him), at least he could rest easy knowing that his own quip wasn't the lamest sounding one uttered that night. Boomerang threw his namesake with all his strength, drawing his throwing arm across his chest and letting loose so the curve went flying straight towards Osborn still hovering above...

And missed him entirely. Osborn watched the boomerang go sailing whole inches past him with complete and utter apathy, and Carnage actually winced on Boomerang's behalf for such an awkward and utter failing.

"**Are ya' done yet, Crocodile Dundee?"** he asked, while Boomerang's knees started to vibrate together like he was an insect trying to take off. "**Cause if that's all ya' got for show 'n tell, I think it's my turn now."** Carnage's scythes might have been too short to reach Norman, but they were more than long enough to span the distance between himself and the frozen soon-to-be-dead man praying silently in front of him. He took his time in lowering the blade to Boomerang, letting him believe he could still run away and, at the same time, daring him to do so. Venom bristled, flicking his attention to the other dead body still lying on the grass, ice melting from it to bloat its white skin. One had already died tonight because he hadn't done anything, because he _couldn't _do anything about it. Even if Boomerang was a criminal, he wasn't anywhere near the league of the two monsters staring him down. That was why he was so terrified that he couldn't move, and that was why he didn't deserve to die.

Felicia delayed his heroics though, with just four simple words pushed out in a sigh.  
"Bad aim. How unlucky."

Just as she said it and as the twinkle in her eye faded once again, she was proven both wrong and right at the same time. It was unlucky, but it wasn't bad aim. Carnage, Norman and even Boomerang himself seemed to have forgotten what made a boomerang what it was, and they remembered it just then; the fact that it always came flying back to where it came from. And the return arc of this one send it crashing not through Osborn's skull, but a little lower down. The momentum it had picked up sent the curve of metal crashing right through the base of the glider Osborn was standing on, not quite shearing it in two but spitting the casing so severely that Norman toppled off before the jets died, restarted, kept going long enough to send the craft spiralling, wobbling so close to the traffic-jammed treeline that it knocked an entire line of desperate people out of the way, then sputtered and died again within seconds that saw the glider battering through the air in a cloud of thick smoke. It finally landed with a rending crunch of metal and God-knows what else it was made of on the other side of the clearing, and the smoke sent a signal billowing into the sky.

Despite the multitude of goblin bombs and tanks of volatile fuel onboard the vessel, the crash site miraculously hadn't exploded. In fact, it faired a lot better than Osborn himself.

He had hit the ground legs-first, and if his fall had been just a few inches more to the left or right he might have found it broken by a thick tangle of plant growth. Unfortunately, it wasn't, and the solid grass broke both legs as soon as it greeted them.

The entire spectacle had taken a maximum of six seconds from start to finish, and that was about how long it took for Venom to realise why Felicia looked even more proud of herself than usual.

"**You did **_**not **_**make all that happen."**

"Oh, I did," she assured him through a grin that dared him to doubt her.

"**How?!"**

"Simple. Bad luck for Boomerang to make him miss the first time, then I just shifted it over to Norman so it hit him the second time."

Venom doubted it was simple at all, even though Felicia barely looked out of breath. "**What about the glider so conveniently clearing an escape route for everyone else? That luck have anything to do with you?"**

"Of course," she grinned. "When I give someone bad luck, it takes a lot of effort depending on how unlikely they are to screw up. But if I give it to a random person in a whole group of people," she gestured to the thinning backlog of people finally able to get out with the path cleared of the worst of them by the glider, "it's a lot easier to make crazy shit happen. And if that 'random person' happens to be a guy who thinks a boomerang makes a good weapon, then it takes even _less_ effort to make him fuck up."

Venom was more than impressed. He was absolutely certain that she was bullshitting him- not because he didn't believe that she was fully capable of making crazy shit happen, but because this was Felicia and that was just a habit of hers. "**And just how the hell does that work?"**

She shrugged. "Cause the larger a group of people, the more likely it is that someone in it is gonna fuck up somehow. It's basic statistics, Eddie."

In a distant part of Eddie's brain that wasn't concerned with surviving the night ahead or being so madly in love with her, he knew that what Felicia was saying made sense. He thought he knew. He _maybe_ thought he knew.

"**If you say so…"** This was why she had the probability powers, and he had the alien symbiote to do half the thinking for him. Could be worse. In Cletus' case, the symbiote had to do _all _the thinking.

"**Fuckin' typical."** Carnage had abandoned tormenting Boomerang, who did the smartest thing he'd done all night and took the chance to disappear, in favour of circling Norman like a vulture around a carcass. "**The one guy I threaten to tear legs off'a, and he goes and gets 'em both broken! 'If I can't use 'em, then no one can'. That's just real fuckin' immature, Ozzie!"** He took out his frustration on Norman's twisted left kneecap, kicking it so hard where it shouldn't have been bending that his clawed feet hamstringed him, catching on the thick tendons and ripping them right out from his skin. The red muscle that pulsed in time with Norman's agonised screams matched Carnage's skin so well that they just looked like fresh tendrils trailing behind him when he turned his back on his disappointing target.

"**Guess I'll just haf'ta pick up someone else…"** He seemed to have completely forgotten about Boomerang, instead taking his pick from the terrified people still lingering, nursing wounds from being trampled or expecting far worse waiting for them beyond the trees. As if _anything_ could be worse than what was facing them now.

"**Let's see…"** Carnage made a show of choosing his next victim, stretching out the moment so he could see which one looked most terrified, which one would be the most fun to pull apart. "**Eenie, meanie, miney... hey, wait."** He cut himself off just as his claw landed in the direction of a guy curled up in a foetal position, and spun round so fast that his heavy jaw almost wobbled behind the rest of his face as it came flying towards where Venom was hiding. "**Where the hell d'ya get to now, Dad?!"**

Venom growled in challenge, but he wasn't quite ready to face him again. Mostly because he'd just noticed that Norman wasn't crawling away while he still had tendons left in his skin. Despite the excruciating pain, despite how he literally dragged his useless leg behind him as it replaced ice with blood pumping all over the grass, the ruined musculature glistening like his eyes filled with tears of agony, he was crawling _towards _Carnage.

With or without a symbiote in his head, he really _was_ completely fucking insane. But before he could prove it to himself by latching onto Carnage's razor-bristling ankle, the click of two guns cocking interrupted his suicidal efforts.

"That's enough, you two." The Hood had woken from his demon nap, his cloak now abandoned to unveil a lanky, gawkish young man lurking beneath it, struggling to breathe through the many holes pervading his stained suit. Whatever was left of the Hood's facade was now completely dissolved. He was Parker (though, not the one Venom was so used to hating), and he was pissed. With how close Carnage and Osborn were together, he probably could have hit them both with just one bullet. He kept two trained on them just in case.

"It's been fun," Parker said after a swallowed gasp. "Real educational, too… but I think I'm about ready to head home. The cleanup in the morning is gonna be a nightmare, especially since neither of you'll be around to help out…"

Venom watched Parker do his best to maintain the composure of a dangerous man pushed to the brink, at the risk of slipping into that of an exhausted man about to completely break down, with as much disbelief as Carnage and Osborn. A more naive creature might have hoped that the three of them would just happily kill each other and save him all the work. But this was a barely thirty year old fairytale cosplayer threatening two of the most dangerous criminals ever to hit New York, with guns. _Guns_. As if the mere existence of superpowers didn't immediately make the second amendment completely useless to everyone who didn't have them. What was it with almost everyone trying so hard to die tonight?! It wasn't bad luck or magic or alien compulsion or fucked-up chemicals in the brain or anything like that, this was just collective and infectious stupidity- and Venom felt like he was patient zero.

Felicia was looking at him, and at first he thought she was waiting for him to make the first move before any of the other three did. But he recognised that look. She knew he was wondering how the hell he got into this shit, and she was agreeing with him. Even though _she _was the one who got him into it.

She was so lucky that she was worth it.

A harsh sound grated out from the standoff, tearing one trio away from each other to look towards the other. It wasn't a gunshot, but they were still almost expecting one. None of the three men had moved, though Norman looked like he was convulsing on the ground. Someone was laughing and, most shockingly, it wasn't Carnage.

"**Hey, asshole!" **Carnage grabbed the back of Norman's neck, clawing right into the skin to dangle him like a ragdoll with his wrecked leg looking like it was barely hanging on to its bones. "**You already stole my symbiote, now you tryin'a steal my laugh? I'll get a lawsuit stuck up your ass so far the fine print'll be at the back of your Goddamn throat!**" He ignored Parker shifting the aim of his left gun so both of them were now trained on Carnage's head, knowing that he wouldn't fire them even if they'd be of any use. Norman giggled through bubbles of blood in his throat, coughing out thick clots that blended in with the rest of Carnage's skeleton as they splattered over him.

"You… didn't think I only had _one _glider, did you?" Norman asked, weakly holding something up in a trembling hand. It had a single red light blinking steadily between his fingers, only blinking twice before the second glider heeded the homing beacon and came whistling through the trees like an arrow. It was even bigger than the first, glinting with razor-line edges on every ridge of each wing. It was shrieking by itself, heavy engines and furious jets belching out thrust and coolant whistling desperately through the plating to keep it all together under its own ferocious power.

It was, however, not empty.

"Hood you fucking worthless lying tablecloth-wearing piece of shit! Didn't even fucking wait for me to show up! Think you can skin me outta my half of the score?!"

The sight of the screaming, frenzied woman standing atop the glider, looking like she was literally on fire, answered the unasked question of what Typhoid Mary had done with herself since Felicia and Venom had left her knocked out in the rain. She'd somehow hijacked Norman's ride on her way to come and chew out Parker, and was now setting every tree in her way alight with the globes of fire balanced in her palms. The glider was heading for Norman and Carnage, following the call of the beacon still clutched in Norman's hand, but Mary jumped off before it collided to land feet-first on top of Parker. He broke her fall and shattered the rest of himself against the ground, only managing to avoid the plume of fire that burst towards him from her hands by rolling head-over-heels away from her. The glider had smashed into its target, catching both Carnage and Norman on each wing and carrying them into the trees ahead. A red tendril desperately reached out from the speeding razor to latch onto something solid and pull Carnage free of the trap, but Norman had no such escape. As Carnage slingshotted himself to safety, Venom was still trying to comprehend what had just happened.

"**What the hell is **_**she **_**doing here for?" **he asked to no one, with only one person around to offer an answer.

"What's good luck for us must be bad luck for someone else here." Felicia tugged on his shoulder, pulling him away from the scene. "Leave her to deal with Hood for us. We can go find Norman and…" She trailed off as she watched Mary start to summon an inferno inches from her own face, so that the flames filled her eyes. "Oh, shit."

"**What?" **Venom took a step closer to see what she was seeing, but Felicia pulled him back again.

"That's not Typhoid Mary, Eddie," she said slowly, breathing deeply despite the ashes in the air. "That's _Bloody _Mary. Killing Hood will just be the start for her."

Felicia spoke as someone with experience of what this Mary was capable of. She'd never described any of that to Venom, but… he had a very good idea of what it involved. She looked at Mary like how he looked at Carnage, or Scream, or any of the other animals he'd played a part in unleashing upon the world.

Venom didn't a give a shit if someone like Parker (no matter which one it was) lived or died, but if they just left Mary to wipe him out then she'd quickly move onto anyone else in her way...just like Carnage, she'd set out to massacre the whole city. And, unlike Carnage, she could just burn it all to the ground without even having to move.

"**Dammit..." **He stepped forward again, and Felicia didn't stop him this time. He just hoped she wasn't following as he marched towards the pyre that was flaring around Parker and Mary. He and anyone else with a symbiote were the last people on the planet able to match someone who could start fires with her mind, he knew that. But he wasn't going to fight her. He was just going to be bait for someone who would.

Out of the frying pan, into the literal fire. Eddie hated cliches, especially when they were a perfect fit. But he only felt a fraction of Symby's discomfort as she recoiled harshly from the heat,

"**Hey, Cletus! Get your ass out here! We're not finished with you!" **No need to be subtle about it. The sooner he got noticed, the sooner he could drag Carnage back out into the spotlight, the sooner he could put him down… and the sooner he could get himself out of the oven roaring around him.

Mary's head whipped up, singed strands of hair still glowing around her while she burned a handprint into Parker's cheek with her smoldering fist, with her other hand fusing one of his guns into a lump of molten steel around her fingers. She wasn't any happier to see Venom again than she was her former boss.

"YOU AGAIN, YOU FUCKER!" Mary launched Parker away from her with a concussive force, soaking up the heat all around her to propel it towards her new victim-

"**I saw him first, toots!" ** But Carnage was ready before her. He snapped out of his refuge in the shadows and threw her aside with as much ease as she had thrown Parker with, heedless to how his claws burned against her face when they pushed it down and out of the way. A barbed tendril was around her waist, and it flung her far enough away that he wouldn't be interrupted again for a while, literally throwing Venom's entire plan out the window as well. If Carnage could even feel his red skin bubbling between his fingers as Mary's furious pyromancy sparked a last-ditch attack against her manhandler before she was out of range, he was too busy enjoying the thought of Venom's guts being unrolled out like a rug to give it much mind.

"**Was startin' to get worried, pops... thinkin' you bailed on the family reunion-!"**

Venom was so sick of hearing Carnage's constant sneer that he didn't even let him finish. He used his most obvious advantage, crashing into Carnage so that his own immense size would knock him down. His charge was blind and furious, its only goal to drive as much momentum through Carnage and into Cletus over as short a distance as possible. As soon as solid ground met them both, Venom's punches rained down on Carnage's chest and gaping jaw and pulsing white eyes that seemed to bleed their own black outlines. Every fist that hit his red skin was met with a hundred thin needles trying to pierce Venom's knuckles, but he hardly felt them. His fists only lingered long enough against him to keep Carnage pinned down, to drive as much pain as possible through the symbiote's shell to the animal encased within it. Pain had rarely stopped Cletus before or even managed to hinder him, but it was all that Venom could try to do.

It almost seemed to be working. Carnage was so dazed by the constant hits that all he could do was react to them, unable to lash back or dodge. He tried to sink his teeth into Venom's fist when it came for his jaw, but it just crashed right through them so that the broken fangs now embedded in Symby were like barbs on brass knuckles.

Then, slowly as he continued his assault, Venom noticed there was a delay in his moves. That it was taking more and more force to deliver each punch with the same amount of power. Constriction. Something trying to restrain his arms, something tight around his ribs and chest and neck, like Symby was trying to strangle his whole body.

No, not Symby. Venom took his eyes off Carnage for a second, and found a mesh of red crawling all over him. When he returned his glare, trying to find where the swarm was coming from on Carnage, he only now realised that Carnage's legs were gone. And he quickly realised where they were, even before he looked back over his shoulder.

Carnage had been expecting the tackle, and had taken the precaution of rooting himself to the ground with thick jagged claws embedded in the dirt beneath his feet. A benefit of having a symbiote for legs… that was quickly made void by the fact that enough strength could simply rip the hollow legs away from the torso they were tethered to. And Venom was almost entirely strength.

Almost unstoppable force, meet almost immovable object. He'd torn Carnage completely free from his lower half, carrying his torso to the ground while his legs were left behind. And now he found himself wrapped in a tangle of symbiote strings that stretched out from the abandoned limbs like red and black bubblegum. They easily snapped when Venom flexed against them, but there were so many around him that the broken strands simply joined onto other fragments, until Venom felt like he was trapped in a squirming net.

That would have been bad enough if they weren't also pulling the disembodied legs over, and Venom had turned around just in time to catch the spur of Carnage's heel across his face, almost tearing away Symby's mouth. The snarling mass of teeth and tongue barely clung to the foundation of Eddie's jaw, and when Symby managed to re-secure herself she was being torn apart everywhere else by vicious kicks to the back of Venom's head, shoulders, everywhere that wasn't already being attacked by Carnage's talons that burrowed into Venom so he was lifted off the ground when Venom reared backwards. Carnage's punches weren't as blunt and hard as Venom's, but they didn't need to be. They could gouge and slice and slash, taking away whole chunks of symbiote with every strike, destroying Symby faster than she could repair herself. She was spitting, hissing, shrieking Klyntar curses in Eddie's ears, and he was certain that Red was doing the same as she decimated her mother. Venom might have still been able to overpower him, if he was able to break free of the thick red ropes entrapping him. And with so many holes ripped in his skin, it was only a matter of time before they'd be prying Symby off of Eddie. She was the only thing stopping him from being slaughtered in seconds by the razor-sharp blades coming from all sides, but she was so overwhelmed by the assault that she couldn't fight them off. Red would be taunting her, distracting her, goading her into exhausting herself until her host was completely exposed.

Eddie wasn't going to wait for that to happen. He gave Symby a single command, one that she wouldn't ignore even in the frenzy of agony she was enduring. There was hesitation, but she obeyed and peeled back from his right arm. The Carnage tendrils wrapped tight around it did not stay around the limb, instead they followed Symby's retreat to not give her a moment's peace. Just what Eddie had hoped would happen, and what Carnage hadn't prepared for. There was nothing holding back Eddie's bare fist from slamming into Carnage's jaw with so much force that he was launched backwards through the air, every single cord attaching him to Venom sheared away by the momentum. Then he slammed his whole body back, crushing the tendrils still lodged in the edges of his muscles into red dust. Now that they weren't attached to their host, there was nothing to keep them solid for more than a few seconds. The legs were still feebly kicking at Venom even as they flaked away, and all it took was a grab at the ankles for them to crumble apart.

"**I was gettin' bored of those ones anyway…"** Venom snapped to his feet, finding Carnage standing before him with a brand new pair of legs solidifying, bolstering, bristling with thousands of spikes. Red had realised what she gotten wrong, and had made many improvements this time around. Carnage was grinning proudly for both her and Cletus. "**Go ahead, Dad! Take your best shot! Anythin' you break, I'm just gonna bring back even bet-"**

Carnage choked, and it sounded like a bang followed by a squelch. Something fell out of him, a mass of goo that thumped wetly onto the ground. It hadn't come from his mouth, which was no longer grinning. It was from the palm-sized hole that had appeared in his chest, a tunnel carved right through him, and the lump was around whatever had caused it. Through that hole, Venom saw Felicia standing with Parker's surviving gun in her hands.

Whether or not he realised that the red on the ground had just came out of him, Carnage said nothing. Even though Venom had realised in seconds, it took him much longer than that to speak.

"**Felicia, what are you-?!"  
**"The stone, Eddie," she interrupted firmly. "The stone in his chest that brought him back. I got rid of it." She threw the gun aside, confident that she didn't need it anymore just as Carnage fell to his newly-created knees. His arm reached out, limply, grasping for the chunk of himself that had been cut free. White eyes going blind. Saliva hanging down his slack mouth. Venom thought he saw his body start to corrode. Carnage was dying. Carnage, or Red, or Cletus, or maybe both, they were actually _dying_.

Felicia had just destroyed one of the most dangerous beings in the galaxy, the source of over half of Eddie's nightmares.

That was what he'd been stupid enough to believe for about five seconds. What he'd thought was the symbiote peeling away from its fading host was actually the hook of a harpoon lashing out of Carnage's back, aiming right for Felicia. She dodged so that it grazed rather than impaled her, but the cord it was attached to snapped taut as the hook circled around her ankle, yanking her off her feet and towards Carnage as he whirled round on her. Venom was still in the middle of his five seconds of hope, managing to tear himself free of them only when he saw Felicia's hair stream past her as a white flag of surrender.

"**Bad move, bitch."** Carnage hissed black oil in her face, not looking away as he sent out a spray of red knives from his hand towards Venom. But the hail of blades didn't even slow Venom down; he locked his arm around Carnage's neck, snapping the harpoon line and dragging him away from Felicia even as Carnage made barbs shoot out from his shoulders and arms. Eventually Venom had to throw him aside with the rest of strength, blood trickling from all over his chest as he bellowed.

"**Get away from here, Felicia!" **He couldn't fight and worry about her at the same time. He couldn't focus on destroying Carnage if every second he spent still alive was another second that he could lose her in. Felicia was tough, resourceful, and possibly the only human on the planet that he could trust. But having her anywhere near Carnage was a risk he refused to take.

She wasn't stupid, she should have _known _that she didn't stand a chance against him. _He _hardly stood a chance as it was. But she wasn't running. She freed her ankle and crawled over to the dead goo she'd blasted out of Carnage's chest, slicing her claws through it until she found the one solid thing within it. Not the stone that she'd been expecting, but the bullet casing.

"The stone's not here," she said numbly. "His body's absorbed it..."

"**It doesn't matter, Felicia! We'll take care of him, just get out of here!" **Venom's last plea ended in a splutter as Carnage hefted him up over his head, claws lodged deep into either side of his spine. Carnage was physically half the size that Venom was, but that only made everyone forget that he was actually far stronger than him. He probably could have torn Venom in half, broke his back in two with just enough power from his arms. Instead he tossed Venom aside, so there was nothing in the way between him and Felicia.

"**Y'know, bitch, you look a lil' familiar… yeah, I'm sure I killed ya' once before."** Venom was still rolling across the ground when he heard Carnage muse so dangerously to himself. "**Oh, wait… ohhoho, I remember now!" **

Venom righted himself with thick black tentacles that flung him back towards Carnage, but his throat was caught in a cage of claws before he reached the madman. Carnage's eyes were huge, bemused as they took in Venom hanging once again so helplessly from his talons. "**You got yourself a girlfriend that ain't goo at last, have ya', Dad? Looks like we both got a thing for black and white, amirite?"**

Venom was trying to break free, but Felicia was freezing him up. She was looking frantically for the gun she'd thrown away, but gave up the search in seconds and resorted to using a grappling hook to attack Carnage. It sailed over his shoulder, and he caught the cord to yank on it and pull Felicia back over to him.

"**Guess that makes you my stepmom, huh?"** he announced, neglecting Venom to instead terrorise Felicia with his squirming glare. "**Hey, New Mom, y'know what I did to my last one?"**

Felicia didn't answer. She only winced when Carnage grabbed her hair, then her wrist; slicing through the gloves and grappling mechanism hidden in the fur with the lightest of pressure.

"**GET YOUR FUCKING HAND OFF HER!" **At the very real risk of tearing out his own jugular, Venom wrenched Carnage's claws away from his throat and delivered a devastating punch as he dropped to the ground. Carnage stumbled back, thankfully releasing Felicia. She cradled her shattered wrist, white glove stained red with her own blood, chewing her lip to stop herself screaming. Venom only saw her pain for a second, and it was enough to keep him driving against Carnage for… he didn't know how long. His knuckles went numb as they battered him, his throat hoarse more from his endless snarls than the bruises around it, his muscles burning with all the effort he put into channeling all his strength through them, distilling his fury into focus towards the single goal of exterminating Carnage once and for all so he could have one night's sleep without waking up in cold sweat.

Through the ruins of his teeth, Carnage just laughed.

"**Does... real Mom know you're cheatin' on her, Dad? Tsk tsk. Bad parenting. Really, you should be ashamed of yourself. What kind of example are you setting for me?"**

He wouldn't shut up. Even when he pulled the hole through his chest even wider, even when he clawed the edges of his eyes apart, even when he trapped his tongue in his jaw and sliced it off at the root, he wouldn't shut up. He wouldn't die.

Why wouldn't he just fucking _die_?!

"_**Eddie…" **_Symby was going to tell him to let go. She was going to tell him that he was wasting his time. He didn't want to hear it. Even if she was right, _especially _if she was right, he didn't want to hear it.

"**Hey, Dad… is it just me losin' consciousness... or is it gettin' kinda hot in here?"**

And he wanted to hear Carnage even less. He drowned out every voice with the heavy thud and squish of fists against decaying alien flesh, of his own frustration boiling over in his head and the crackle of sparks all around him-

...Sparks? His attack faltered when he noticed them; everywhere in the air, floating, stinging when they touched him. Twisting yellow that made him flinch away.

Over the roar of heat erupting all around him, he finally heard what Symby had been trying to warn him about.

"_**Eddie! The fire!"**_

There was no _the _fire. _Everything _was fire. The trees, or what was left of them after the battles they'd endured that night, were now alight as smoldering beacons, pouring so much smoke into the sky that Venom almost thought that the Hood had trapped him in another shield somehow. But this was the opposite of the icy morgue that Hood had crafted. This was a furnace, and it was baking Symby alive all around him. She was squealing in pain, holding back shrieks, though only one sound rose higher than the deadly rumble of the fire devouring everything in its path.

"TRY AND FUCKIN' TOUCH ME AGAIN, ASSHOLE! SEE WHAT FUCKIN' HAPPENS!" Bloody Mary had returned to wreak her revenge, utterly unphased by the inferno she'd trapped herself in. When she kicked Venom off of Carnage, her foot sloughed right through Symby and she dribbled off of Eddie like melting ice cream as he toppled over. He didn't watch what Mary was doing, didn't even look to see if Carnage was as debilitated as he was. Symby was trying to pull air into Eddie's lungs, but it was all black and charred and he spluttered it back up. He was drenched, and he couldn't tell what was sweat and what was residue from Symby trying to keep herself together.

He was the one dying this time. The fire, God, he couldn't look anywhere without seeing it. The flames were just inches away from him, licking out to make him flinch away into another roaring wall, a literal circle of fire that kept coming in closer and closer…

'_You're not gonna die… we're not gonna die… fucking hell, don't just lie here, __**do**_ _something!' _Venom's mind was no more. Now it was only Eddie thinking, pleading with himself. Push down the panic. Ignore the heat, even as it's killing you. Try not to think of where the hell Felicia was in all of this.

...Fuck, too late. He coughed again, gritting his teeth as he wiped a sheen of sweat from his forehead. Symbiote remnants clung to his skin, and the back of his hand looked like black butter. He was losing more and more of himself with every second spent in the oven. He had to get out, he had to think, and he thought…

He thought he recognised this part of the Park, even with the greenery engulfed in flame. There was a pond nearby… to the east. Or was it the south? Fuck, he couldn't even tell which way was which… Symby was screaming. Melting. Trying so hard to stay on him. He was holding onto pieces of her even as she slipped through his fingers. Through the pain, she was somehow able to speak.

"_**Jump east, Eddie! I'll get you through it!"**_

'_Symby, it's… it's a wall of fire. It'll kill you-!"_

"_**That doesn't matter. Just do it!"**_

Even though she was patchwork and bubbling and in complete agony, she was pulling him towards the east. If this was her last request, she made it clear that she'd make it an order if she needed to.

It was insane and suicidal and the only option left open to him, so Eddie knew he wouldn't deny her. But if he was going to risk losing her… he'd drag someone else through hell with him.

He found Carnage working his claws through Mary's arm, so intent on his work that he didn't see him coming from behind to grab him. Red was melting just as Symby was, and she splattered against Venom's chest as he pulled Carnage close, red remnants gluing him there as Venom ran across what little ground was left, towards the waiting inferno and then… right through the blaze.

Eddie felt only a fraction of Symby's pain, and he almost blacked out. He felt the fire on his skin, charring right through to his bones, singeing his hair and as Symby peeled away like a cocoon dumping him into acid. The heat alone made him feel like he was going to explode as his blood boiled away, and the back of his throat was cooked as he screamed.

At least he was right about the pond on the other side. The fall into the water, a freezing slap that coursed through his entire body, almost stopped his heart. He was only sure it was still beating when he felt that the only thing left burning was his lungs floating uselessly in the cavern of his chest. His arms were empty, flailing wildly in the wet dark, either dragging him down into his death or pulling him up towards the surface.

It turned out to be the latter, and Eddie didn't know if he was glad about that. His body forced him to gulp down air even as his lungs seized and spasmed from the ash still coating them, as the burned and blistered skin on his chest cracked open with each desperate breath. He was blind from the water streaming down his face, though he didn't really want to be seeing anything. Everything felt so heavy. Everything hurt. Everything was… so empty.

'_Symby…?'_

He wasn't shocked when she didn't answer. He couldn't feel her. He couldn't hear her scolding him or lecturing him or praising or comforting or her screams of pain. All he could hear was…

Laughter.

Someone laughing above him, dragging him to the shore.

Eddie realised that he hadn't pulled himself free of the pond.

"**Looks like it's two against one… my favourite kind'a odds." **

When Eddie saw Carnage looming over him, he wasn't burned. He wasn't covered in patches of exposed blackened skin. He wasn't even coughing from the smoke. He was completely unscathed, and his foot drove daggers through Eddie's spine as it came crashing down onto his back, driving him down into the cold mud.

"**Really, I don't blame Mom for ditchin' you. Probably gone back to one of her other boyfriends. Y'know why, Brock?"**

Eddie wheezed. He wasn't trying to speak, but he couldn't stop it as the spurs from Carnage's foot pressed down and pierced through his lungs. He could feel himself deflating. Light-headed already, black spots swimming in his eyes. For less than a second he thought they were traces of Symby, but they didn't speak to him. They taunted him for still being conscious, and multiplied when Carnage snared a fistful of his hair to yank his head up. Blood was already oozing down his forehead.

"**Cause you ain't givin' her what she needs,"** Carnage hissed in his ear, still grinding his foot down on his spine, forcing him to hear his own bones cracking. "**You know it, too. You look at me 'n Red and you think, Venom ain't like them. Venom can be different. I can make this alien **_**fit in**_ **on a planet she can't stand being on any more than I can. I can **_**force**_ **her to behave, and she'll go ahead and thank me for it. Cause you're so fuckin' scared of what she really is, but you're so much more desperate not to be alone. That's why you're tryn'a turn the perfect carnivore into a vegan, my man. And I dunno about you, but I fuckin' hate vegans."**

Carnage released Eddie's bleeding scalp, letting his neck fall limp but keeping his face out of the water with claws secured on his chin, digging deep into his cheeks. "**Let's face it... ya' never made much use of her anyway. I mean look at me and Red. I don't lie to her. I don't make her into something she isn't. And cause of that, we're inseparable. Unstoppable. We're… what d'they call 'em on Instagram and shit…?"** He paused for a moment and snapped the fingers of his other hand, waiting for Red to give him the answer he was looking for.

"**Yeah… power couple. That's me and her. Nothin' but power. More than we really know what to do with most of the time… well. Not so much this time." **

Carnage drove the point home with the tip of his claw, twisting it into the worst of Eddie's burns to slice the cooked skin apart. When he screamed he re-awoke the burns along his throat, which only made him scream even more. The worst kind of feedback loop. Across the surface of the pond that had carried him to this torture Eddie saw wild flames reflected, twisting together and morphing into horrible mocking shapes as the water rippled away from him, his labored gasps and the spasms of his muscles as they started giving up on him. Eddie was only glad Symby wasn't here. She'd be trying so hard to fix him, not realising that he was already dead, not knowing when to give up on him.

Heh. That explained why they were so good for each other. Carnage didn't agree.

"**You, on the other hand,"** he was still saying, still taking his time, "**were so scared of Mom turnin' into Red that ya' didn't even call her… well, '**_**her'**_**. But in the end… well, like mother, like daughter. I mean, where did ya' think Red got it all from?"**

Eddie couldn't shut himself to the pain because of Carnage's words, and couldn't shut himself to the words because of the pain. Despite his delirium, despite how he just wanted to stop hurting, he understood Carnage perfectly. As if Red herself was forcing their doctrine into him as she carved through his ruined body, one last thing to pride herself on before she had to move onto someone else.

Someone else that wasn't Eddie. He could only pray that it wasn't Felicia either.

'_Just… fucking get it over with already…' _

Whether Carnage somehow heard him beg or whether he was just getting bored now that Eddie- host of his mother, saint of symbiotes, pain in the ass from day one- was now just another slab of rotting meat, he sighed and stood up. His entire weight was now on Eddie's back, squashing his organs as they went into shut down.

"**Do me a favour, Brock. When ya' get to hell, tell my other parents I said hi."**

Eddie felt his throat splitting open. It was like being caught in the middle of a tidal wave, his stomach dropping out, eyes blinking and rolling over and over on their own, the blood that he still had in his body gushing through the wound in a flood that pushed the scar open even wider. He gagged on it. He was trying to vomit up his own oesophagus.

The last thing he saw in his own blood as it tainted the pond, the surface still bathed in burning light from the furnace beyond, was the last traces of black slipping out of his eyes. It wasn't Symby, though. They were just tears.


	27. Night 17 Part 4

Eddie had been dead before. Only once, whereas every other time he was only _almost _dead. It was a long time ago, but he still remembered it well.

Symby had been wanting to leave, before she learned how to live without killing. She'd taken all she could from him, everything the cancer hadn't already drained. Adrenaline, dopamine, serotonin, and a hundred other brain chemicals he couldn't even pronounce. He was left hollow and barren, and she was the only thing that still kept him breathing despite it all. Only until she could find someone else to latch onto and bleed dry. That someone had meant to be Peter.

At the time, Eddie hadn't minded the exchange. He'd finally get to die, and Symby could finally fulfil their mutual hatred, the one thing that had kept them together for so long. She would feast on Peter, and he would either become something worse than Venom or simply crumble into an empty shell like what he'd reduced Eddie to.

Of course, that hadn't happened. Peter had somehow tricked them, forcing Symby out when she tried to bond and giving her no choice but to slink back into Eddie and drag him back to the land of the ungrateful living. Apparently, while that deception was playing out, he'd only spent a few seconds dead that felt like hours.

He remembered that they were the most peaceful hours of his entire life.

He remembered not hurting anymore. Not _being _able to hurt anymore. The world was safe from him at last and he was safe from it, and he remembered that that was the last thing he felt glad about.

...He didn't remember his hand being so small, though.

It was hanging over his head, surrounded by white so soft that he felt it caressing him, but he wasn't holding it up. Something had hold of his fingers. Something was stroking his palm, his head, letting him know that he wasn't alone. He didn't think it was Symby. It wasn't within him, trying to flush out the buildup of countless pathogens and unhealthy thoughts he couldn't help accumulating by the end of his life. It was blind to how rotten he was inside.

That was why it could even bear to touch him. Or maybe it was just scavenging him, waiting for him to blink before it descended upon him. He didn't need to blink, though. It didn't feel like he even had eyes, just as it didn't feel like the hand floating above him was his. But who else's would it be?

He was tired of waiting in this saturated purgatory. So, so tired. He was ready to be taken away, dragged or yanked or dropped into whatever was waiting for him beyond. He stopped looking, closing over whatever he was seeing out of, accepting complete and utter vulnerability.

He exhaled through phantom lungs, but the sigh he heard wasn't his own. The voice he heard, as well, was far from his own.

"Oh, Eddie… what have you gotten yourself into this time?"

His eyes snapped open. He wasn't shocked. Here he had no skipping heart to flinch away from, no throat to fill with a gasp. But something instinctual, something still lingering from the life he'd just left, told him that he _was_ surprised. Whether it was at being able to recognise that voice instantly, or at seeing her here with him at all, he would never be able to say. There was only one thing, only one word that he _could _say.

"...Mom?"

The woman sitting over him, cradling his head so gently in her lap, smiled down at him. He might have thought she was Felicia if he'd seen her before he heard her, but her hair wasn't white. The blonde only looked like it was white at first glance, its glow so suffuse through the soft blinding air that it easily seemed like they were one and the same. Like there was a halo hanging above her, blossoming out all around him. And at the center of that halo hung a face he only recognised from pictures, the few that his father left lingering around the house in their dusty frames that he didn't dare move or even touch. Everything he knew about Jamie Brock was secondhand, patchwork, shrouded in grief and undeniably biased towards making her even more of an angel than the one sitting right before him.

Yet when Eddie saw that smile on her face, the thin lines carved into each side of her mouth from having shown a hundred of them when she was alive, he knew he was safe. He was in a home that he never even knew existed, immersed in a peace that he never thought was possible, which could only mean one thing.

"...I'm dead, aren't I?" As he asked, barely above a whisper, he realised that he sounded much younger than he was sure he'd been before. A small voice for the small hand that his mother still cradled, her touch barely perceptible. He couldn't even see her limbs through their own ethereal glow, but he somehow knew they were there just as he knew who she was.

"Not quite," she answered, still smiling so impossibly bright even for this luminescent heaven. "Not yet. And thank God for that, if you still talk to Him."

Eddie was aware of a lump in his throat, yet he couldn't swallow. His mouth was only present to speak with, yet he didn't feel his lips move. That wasn't why he found it so hard to form words.

"I… I didn't see you the last time I…" He trailed off, finally overwhelmed by the surreality of talking about his own death to a ghost, the lump swelling to overflow his weak voice. It only dissolved when the ghost placed a hand on his chin, faint fingers cradling his cheek.

"You didn't stay here long enough for me to see you," she told him, sounding either sad or grateful or… Eddie honestly couldn't tell. He'd only been anticipating immeasurable disappointment that somehow wasn't there. That must have been still to come.

How long had he been dead, then? Minutes? Hours? How long had it taken for him to be judged, given permission to come here and be steeped in tranquility with someone he'd never had the chance to love?

...No. This wasn't right. This wasn't what he'd been prepared for. This wasn't what he deserved.

"I shouldn't be here," he whispered.

"You're right." His mother let go of his hand, so it sank slowly and landed on his chest. "You should be on Earth."

"I mean… I mean I shouldn't be _here_." He sat up, and was instantly aware of how heavy he felt, as if the gravity here was twice what he'd spent his life being so used to. His hand sagged as he brought it to his throat, feeling no scar or gouge, only the stem of another lump building there. He wondered if it was his soul stuck in there, trying to claw its way out so it could go to where it belonged. He kept rubbing at his phantom wound, almost wishing it was still sliced open so any sounds that came past could just gush out through it. They'd eventually make words on their own so he didn't need to think of them, so he didn't need to admit his own guilt even as it was crushing him.

That's what the heaviness was. The lead in his bones. A world on fire, perched on his shoulders. He'd have to draw it all out, heave it away, before he could finally feel nothing at all.

"If this isn't just a near-death experience," he said, "or a hallucination or whatever the hell it is, I… should be in…" He stopped. He'd already mentioned where he _should_ be.

Across from him, Jamie Brock was kneeling yet he only stood slightly taller than her. He couldn't tell what age he really was in this world, but he mustn't have been more than eight years old. For some reason that was the form she'd chosen for him. Perhaps that was just when he was most innocent, and it was the only way he could be here with her at all. Maybe this was the only way that _she_ wanted to see him, knowing full well that the man the boy became wasn't someone she'd want to call her son.

"Oh, baby…" Her smile fell from her eyes, and he realised then with some pride that his were just as blue as hers. "You're as stubborn as your father sometimes." Somehow Eddie didn't flinch at the mention of him. "You really still don't think people can redeem themselves?"

It was a question that, despite how often he'd considered it in times before and after becoming Venom, threw him for a second, mostly because of how deliberately broad it was. It wasn't that he didn't believe people could be redeemed. It was that he didn't believe, not for a delusional second, not even in this muted paradise that didn't belong to him, that _he _could be. She knew that. She must have. How long had she been watching him for? How much of his wretched life had she seen? How could she _not_ know…?

He realised it quickly. She wasn't asking because she didn't know the answers. She was asking because she wanted to know if Eddie knew them.

He would have liked to know that as well.

"I don't think I count as 'people' at this point." He sank low, his back against nothing and his skinny legs pulled up to his chest where nothing was beating within. It was strangely comforting. No background noise. No palpitations when the adrenaline flooded through. No distracting, constant thump in his ribcage.

...No home for Symby. No resting place.

Nothing to give to Felicia, either.

Fuck, he wished he'd kissed her again.

"What do _you_ see 'people' as, Eddie?" Mom had floated over, was kneeling next to him, silent even as she spoke in that hushed breath that made him want to burst into tears. "Someone who never makes mistakes?" she asked, not calling attention to how he furiously swiped the back of his hand across his eyes. "Someone who's 'innocent'? Cause no one like that exists. Not on Earth. Not even here."

Eddie wanted to ask what 'here' even was, but he was so terrified of ruining the illusion. If he looked at it too closely, he knew it would burst apart. All he could do was be grateful for it while it was here, while _she _was here with him, even as he argued with her.

"That's being human," he said, remembering how Felicia had told him all about that when she was close to death herself. "Being a human and being a _person _aren't the same thing."

"Then what are you, if not human?" She'd copied his position, back against some invisible pillar, legs hugged close to her body. Somehow she looked more graceful than juvenile. "And if you, my own son, aren't a human, then what does that make me?"

Eddie's head snapped up. He hadn't even realised what the implications of his own self-loathing were, and he was horrified by them. He was about to stammer out an explanation, an insistence that he didn't mean it like that, even when he saw that his mother wasn't wanting one from him. After that, he only sighed.

"You had nothing to do with what I turned into, Mom. I'm sorry." He hid himself against his knees, closing himself off despite the hand on his head, a feather-touch in his hair that pulled his cheek onto the shelf of his mother's shoulder.

It was the first time in many, many years since anyone had hugged him, the first time ever at the age he now was, and never before like this. He hadn't realised how cold he was until he felt her warmth, and he couldn't help burrowing deep into it, cocooning himself. It seemed like he was always wrapping himself in women to forget where he was.

...Where he was. Where the light was blinding and the ground was soft and damp under him and seagulls cried out alone in the distance. When he opened his eyes, he saw it was the sun and the grass and that the gulls were banished to the bay by the walls enclosing the garden he was sitting in. It stretched over three acres of immaculate lawns and the sputtering sprinklers that fed them, and the riot of flowers that crowded the shadows of the few trees that weren't stubborn palms fanning out over the boundaries. One of them grew close enough that from the inside you could climb down and leave the walls behind. Eddie had done so countless times, knowing his father wouldn't miss him so long as the flowers weren't touched.

This was the garden of the house in San Francisco. The house one that he was born in, and that Jamie Brock died in. The one he'd forced his father to give up, just a few years from now. Not the exact same one, of course. This place was too cheerful, too peaceful. He didn't dread being here nearly enough for it to be the same place where he was raised. Because this wasn't his heaven. It was Jamie's. She must have created it from her own memories. Maybe all at once, or maybe piece by piece over the years she'd spent dead.

He focused on the grass beneath him. He knew it wasn't real. He knew this place would never be his own. He kept looking at it, expecting to see it all catch fire at any second. The heat was already catching up to him, even though he hid his face from the accusing San Francisco sun that would never set.

"...Is Annie here?" he asked. Not here with them right now, but 'here', where she was safe from people like him. Whether or not she knew what he meant, Mom's answer was simple.

"She is."

Eddie suddenly found it hard to breathe, like he was being smothered. He realised it was his own hand clamped like a vice over his mouth, the only thing stopping him from keening.

"Does she…" He gulped, devouring the sea-salt air as he trembled. "Does she know I'm sorry?"

A weight pressed down ever so slightly on his head just as a sob ripped through, his mother resting her chin just above where her fingers wreathed his hair. "She does," she told him softly. "She's known it all along. And she forgave you a long time ago."

Eddie wanted to shake his head, but the strength he needed for it wasn't there. He couldn't even hold himself up anymore, sitting helpless and exhausted and slumped against his mother as his face was flooded with almost-silent tears. She stroked his hair until the flood was a trickle, until he could inhale without breaking down into an echo of choked sobs. Then she released him, with only her hand still lingering on his shoulder.

"You've apologised enough, Eddie. Sooner or later, you need to start forgiving yourself."

She was lecturing him. Her son was a criminal, a murderer, a literal monster, and she thought she could fix him with a firm tone and gentle eyes. Maybe this was her last ditch attempt to save him.

But if all it took to get into heaven was forgiving yourself, no matter what, then he'd rather take his chances in hell. Because the second he forgave himself for anything was the second he'd lose himself amidst something that was somehow even worse. It happened with Venom, then Anti-Venom, then Toxin… every new demon inside him just added to the buildup of bitterness and selfishness and hatred so old and seasoned and used to him that even now it sat rancid and stagnant in his brain. Hatred for anyone and anything that got in his way, and then for himself.

A year ago, he hadn't thought he was capable of feeling anything else. A year ago, he hadn't had Symby, or Felicia. It had taken the both of them for him to acknowledge anything outside of anger and misery, and only with that were they able to reason with him, and then him with himself.

He didn't belong here. He wasn't interested in denying that by doing anything as arrogant and selfish as forgiving himself. If he gave in to that temptation now, he'd reach heaven on lies. And people like his mother and Annie would be all the worse for it, having to share their paradise with someone like him.

After all, if _he _could get into heaven, then who else could get in too?

"I think I was born evil, Mom," Eddie confessed, shying away from her touch and gaze. "Like Cletus. That's how I killed you."

Her hand left his shoulder. Then she started laughing. As if he'd just said he wanted to be a chicken when he grew up or join the police so he could be best friends with the Avengers, rather than admitting to repaying her for his birth by murdering her. She composed herself quickly, but Eddie was so baffled by the reaction that he was still staring at the deep lines on her flushed cheeks long after they'd settled on either side of her mouth.

"Eddie, that is the stupidest thing you've ever said. And you've said a lot of stupid things up until now." No argument from him on that. He only looked away, still holding his knees to his chest, until a hand on one of them pulled his attention back to her. The smile was still there, having not budged an inch since he first saw it, yet it was different. The sadness in it shocked him. She'd realised he'd meant every word, just as he realised it broke her heart to hear them.

"No one, no human or person or even symbiote, is born good or evil, baby." Her hand took one of his own, placing it on the other she held his knee with, holding the shaking fingers steady for him. "It all accumulates over time. What matters is, when your time is over, whether the good outweighs the bad."

Why was she speaking as if it wasn't too late? His time _was _over, and he could feel the bad weighing down so heavy that it was trying to crush him. Her embrace was the only thing shielding him from it. If she let go of him, it would all collapse.

He shook his head, just waiting for it all to finally bury him. "I don't think it's possible for me to do that much good in one lifetime."

"It is." Her fingers tightened around his. "You've already started. And you have a long way to go… but plenty of time to get there."

Maybe it was because of the still-chronic shock of seeing his mother, or because her ghost touch took so long to register wherever it went, or the nagging ache in his throat that only now disintegrated to ebb across the whole of him- obliterating the numbness that came with the certainty of his own demise- but it was only with that assurance that it

all finally clicked for Eddie. It was right in front of him from the start, but he'd been so stubborn and relieved to be dead that he'd looked right past it.

She'd said he _wasn't_ dead.

Not yet.

He could still fix himself.

He could still save those who deserved to live so much more than he did.

He fell forward into Mom's arms, and she caught him as if he was already there to start with. She didn't mind that he was making her shoulder damp from all the tears, nor that she was shaking with him. She helped stabilise the tremors, as they rolled in on waves of relief and terror of what lay ahead for him, of the very real possibility that he could still fuck it up and put it all to waste. Yet, at the same time, she almost made him believe that he could do it, because the possibility of succeeding was just as real as that of failing.

"One day I'll finally hold you for good," she said. "But not today. There's something a lot stronger than death pulling you back to Earth." She gently let go of him when he stopped shaking, still holding onto his shoulders to steady them. She'd soaked as much of his doubt as she could hold, and somehow it hadn't dampened her glow at all. That shocked Eddie as much as the realisation that, though he was still on the ground, he was now almost two heads taller than her. He knew the boy she'd had was gone before he heard his own voice.

"Mom, I… I can't go back… I-I don't know if-"

"You _do_ know, Eddie." She squeezed his shoulders firmly, commanding his gaze even though he wanted nothing more than to run away. "You're so much more than what you think you are. Everyone else except you can see that. Everyone, including the two waiting for you back home." Then she stood, using her grip on one shoulder for leverage. He held it in place, looking up at her once again with his fingers desperately clinging to the wisps of hers. The garden was all white now. She was starting to vanish with it too, her legs simply fading away into nothing as she pulled his forehead to her chin.

"If you go back having learned only one thing, let it be this," she whispered against his skin. "I love you. And they love you too."

She kissed him there, pinning his hair aside so he could feel the last of her breath before it was gone. And he closed his eyes, knowing he at least carried a trace of her within them, feeling her leave him when his fingers held onto nothing.

In those few seconds where he had the void to himself, he replayed her last words. Cherishing them. Burning them into memory, assuming he'd still have any of that when he left.

Studying them.

Realising.

She'd said 'they'.

The _two _waiting for him.

Symby, and Felicia, were still alive.

Burning and stinging now, his eyes snapped open again-

And Eddie Brock gasped awake, choking up charcoal and blood and bile, into a world still on fire but no longer chained to his shoulders. Vision flooded and blind, lips bleeding from their cracks, sweating through what little intact skin he had left and with the motherfucker of all cramps plaguing his shoulders…

He figured he'd felt worse before.

'_Okay. Not dead. Cool.' _Once the worst of the coughing had passed, leaving his throat feeling like he'd just chugged down hydrochloric acid, he reached a hand to where he was sure all his blood had left through-

And barely got it off the ground before the cooked skin on his arm split apart and set his nerves on fire all over again.

'_Still burned. Not so cool. Fucking ow…' _Eddie inhaled deeply, gritting his teeth in preparation for the pain this time. It didn't make the agony any better as he forced his hand up to his neck, slapping his hand flat across his throat and letting his less-damaged fingers do the probing.

No cut. No blood. Not even a scar. Something had fixed the wound that killed him, but left behind everything else. The only evidence left of his death was the hard lump left in his throat, and that already going away. Not only that, but he knew he'd died in the water. Yet he didn't feel any lapping against him, or hear splashing when he tried to move. Someone had found and moved him away…

Maybe Mary? She might have thought he'd be an easy target, and left him when she saw he was already gone. Oh God, what if it was Felicia or Symby, who reached his body too late and pulled him to the shore? Or was it Carnage-?  
...Fuck. Carnage. Between losing himself in the afterlife and being dragged away from it, Eddie had almost forgotten about him. Now all the third-degree burns were the least of his problems.

"...Symby?" He whispered it, not knowing who else was listening nor how else to summon her. He still couldn't feel her nearby. All he felt was the heat, the fire that was still devouring Central Park, only leaving pockets of empty scorched space free as the flames spread through the trees. Though it wasn't as fierce as when it first started, he was lucky that the grass beneath him wasn't cinders. How could Symby have gotten out of this? Felicia, too… he could only hope they were somewhere on the other side of the inferno.

At least Carnage was trapped here just as much as Eddie was. Even if he could survive the flames, Red wouldn't want to risk going through them. She hadn't yet gotten over the selfish side of symbiosis, and likely never would. That's what he remembered Symby telling him, at least, and he could only hope she was right.

Because Carnage was close, and getting even closer. Eddie heard him muttering, whining to himself over the roar of the fire, and threw himself flat on the ground. The spasms of pain lasted for a few seconds afterwards, potentially already dooming him.

"**Yeah yeah, I know you wanted to get Mom too, but we don't always get what we want, babe."** Carnage paused to prod Eddie's body with a clawed toe sharp enough to slice right through the skin it touched. All Eddie could do was clamp his jaw in a steel vice, holding back a hiss of agony while praying that Carnage didn't notice the sudden intake of air from what was supposed to be a corpse, or care too much that the corpse wasn't where he'd last left it to rot.

Luckily for Eddie, once Carnage made a kill he never paid much attention to what was left over. Especially not when he had others to hunt down.

"**Besides,"** he abandoned Eddie once again, barely even rolling him over, "**we got more important shit to do! First things first, we gotta go surprise Spidey-**" He cut off, then growled from the interruption. "**Well if someone's already killed him then we'll just kill a kid dressed like him, alright?! What else… ah, then I gotta go check up on the **_**other**_ **love of my life-"** Another interruption cut through, but this one was much more intense. Eddie could almost hear the symbiotic gurgles of protest.

"**Huh? Don't give me that shit, you always liked Shriek!"**

Eddie remembered Shriek. He mostly remembered feeling depressed that someone like fucking _Carnage_ could keep a girlfriend better than he could. She'd made herself right at home by his side during his last city-wide massacre, and was likely the only living being on the planet that Carnage wouldn't try to kill on sight.

And Red was jealous of her. She'd come all this way, went as far as puppeting Norman Osborn around to orchestrate this entire evening, with the sole purpose of returning to Cletus… and he was more interested in seeing a lady with a body of her own.

If his lungs weren't charred, if he wasn't just inches away from the creature who'd just killed him and who'd be itching to do it all over again, Eddie would have had to laugh. As it was he couldn't hold back a wheeze, but Carnage was too busy having a marital argument with himself to notice. He was flailing, slicing the air, while his own skin fought against him.

He was distracted, but for how long? Eddie moved his neck as much as he dared, scanning whatever wasn't on fire through bone-dry he could find a gap in the flames, he could try and pull himself through it before it closed. Or, if he could make it back to the water, he could hide in the shallows until someone else found him.

But if Carnage saw him moving… shit. Shit. There was a new shadow spilling over him. Carnage was standing close. He'd already been found out. He'd moved his head too much and now he was gonna die all over again, and the Mom hallucination was gonna take back everything she said, and he'd never get to tell Felicia all the shit he'd been saving for until after they'd survived this and-

And then the shadow shortened, as it crouched over him, and he dared to flick his eyes sideways.

That wasn't Carnage.

That was someone wearing his symbiote.

That was someone looking really, _really _good in his symbiote.

He only caught a glimpse of her- it was definitely a her- from the front before she stood up again and stepped over him, but all that liquid black catching the reflections of the fires could only have been one thing. There was no mouth on this Venom, strangely. The face was completely smooth darkness, aside from the familiar white crescents looking down at him. Combined with the white spider stretched wide across her chest, he'd almost thought he'd been found by some kind of new Spider-Woman until he saw no signs of it being a mask. A mask wouldn't have allowed a sea of white tendrils to spill out over the head, that whipped and snapped behind her like she was some kind of Medusa as she walked, no, _marched_ away from him and towards Carnage.

Though Eddie couldn't take his eyes off of her when she left, though the white erupting over her shoulders looked so familiar, though he'd spent every night of the last week picturing the very same curves that were now outlined in a liquid ever-shifting void that usually only he could come out of alive, he only realised who she was when she spoke.

"**Hey, Cletus!"**

Carnage snapped around, with the renewed urge to murder dying in the wake of confusion. She was still sweeping towards him while he narrowed one eye towards where he cocked his head. He looked as surprised as Eddie had been, though for very different reasons.

"**...Stepmom?"**

Felicia, She-Venom, VenomCat, whatever beautiful creature she and Symby had created together, answered by plunging white-tipped claws through his chest. If Venom had tried that, he would have barely gotten through the red crust before Carnage would have simply broken his wrist for even daring to try something so lazy.

But this wasn't Venom. This was Felicia. And Symby had covered every inch of her… except the claws now digging their way through Carnage's ribcage. Those were coated in Anti-Venom, dripping deadly white poison. Eddie quickly realised that when Carnage started erupting with white smoke, and when Felicia's claws pulled through the other side of his chest to carve a hole right through his spine.

With her entire arm pushed between his ribs, and her face right next to his, she made sure he realised that it wasn't going to heal before she released him. Her hair-tendrils shifted, something more than the wind rippling through them, and Eddie saw with what could only be called fascination that Symby had kept her mouth nestled in Felicia's hair- the thicker ends were lined with teeth, the tongue dangling amidst the rest of the lengths. Now it was moving towards Felicia's face, the teeth rolling into place with the tongue to stretch Felicia's mouth into an impossibly huge sneer.

"**You're grounded."** Felicia yanked her hand free of Carnage, and the claws gutted the last of him, pulling through his crumbling body like a burning knife through bloody butter.

No, not just crumbling. Boiling. Melting. Red literally sloughed off of him in congealed sheets of dead and dying flesh; flaking away and peeling away on the outside, with the raw viscera beneath bubbling and frothing with sickening fury that matched Cletus' and Red's shared screams. Her mouth stretched so wide that his head was left exposed within her throat, the black teeth like bars of an mollifying jail cell and then, as they lost their edge, like pearls of oil being pulled down by gravity across Cletus' face. It was probably the closest the man had ever come to shedding tears.

"**Red?! Red, baby, talk to me! Don't**… don't go! Red!?"

Anti-Venom was devastating enough to normal symbiotes, but what it reduced Cletus to, someone whose symbiote was imbued in his very blood cells, who dwelled in his DNA… it was brutal, even for him. It was literally eating Cletus alive, shelling him of whatever he had left that wasn't entirely human. He was choking on his own voice as its echo bled away from his throat.

If Eddie had the strength to, he would have looked away, but he couldn't even close his eyes. Felicia only stepped back to watch Cletus dissolve from the inside, flicking out her hand to rid it of the clinging Carnage shards. He was shrieking, begging, kneeling in the crimson slime and trying to pull Red back onto him, only to have her simply slide off and melt back into the puddle around him. He didn't seem to care that he was melting too. He didn't even seem to notice, not until his bones started showing through his hands as they sifted through what was left of his love and himself, who were one and the same.

That was the last that Eddie saw of it as the pain, as everything started to fade, and he was only grateful that he didn't need to see the end. As much as he hated Carnage and everything involved in his existence, even though he'd literally just been killed by him… he didn't want to see him die like that. It was all too easy to imagine himself in Cletus' place.

After all, they were both killers. The only difference was that Eddie could feel guilt about it. That was about the only thing he could feel now, surrounded in darkness. The ground was still hard and charred at his back, his skin was still peeling away under his burns and gushing out old blood over them, but he barely even felt his own pulse.

He'd lived long enough just to see himself avenged, and to see Symby find someone else who deserved her. He didn't see much point in trying to hold on any longer.

"**Eddie?" **He heard half of his own voice reflected at him, somewhere on the edge of the dark. "**Say something. Tell us you're still alive!"**

Something pulled his eye open, and as the black was banished he saw both of the women he loved kneeling over him. He saw his blistered face reflected in those creased white eyes that he'd spent so much of his life looking through, without knowing how he looked when seen through them. He saw that Felicia's face wasn't completely smooth after all- there was a small imprint of her lips through the black that he couldn't stop staring at, even though they were frowning. He liked it a lot better when she smiled.

If he could just make her smile one last time, he could go in peace. He summoned one last wheeze of air.

"...You look really hot."

He didn't know if that managed to do the job. He lost his vision before he lost his voice, and the world fell from under him. The fire didn't follow him, because it didn't have to.

He didn't feel warm or cold.

He didn't feel sad.

He only felt… heavy. Bruised. Some resistance tearing at his back, the blood still left in him swishing slowly flowing from one side of him to the other. He still couldn't see, but he could tell someone was moving his body. Dragging him, then carrying, then dragging again, until finally he was left flat on gravel that bit into his shoulders.

Which meant he still wasn't dead.

For fuck's sake, how come everyone else made it look so easy?!

"And just where the hell were _you_ this whole time?" That was Felicia's voice sounding so out of breath, no longer filtered through Symby. She couldn't have been talking to him, nor could she have carried him by herself. Which meant someone else was close.

'_Please don't be Spider-Man, please don't be him-"_

"Hey, I was only brought in _after _the flood of criminals out of the Park were seen babbling about Carnage. You and Brock did all the work before I even got the chance to."

It wasn't Peter. It was someone _worse_.

"Yeah, well, maybe you're just not very good at your job," Felicia huffed. "Anti-symbiote security, my ass..."

"You just might have a point there." Eddie could practically see Flash's shit-eating grin just through his voice. It was infuriating, it was aggravating his burns, it was completely unfair that Eddie was left not-quite-dying while he could stand next to Felicia sounding so dismissive and complacent-

And it almost made him completely miss the second, much more important voice that sang through his veins.

"_**I'm here, Eddie. I'm fixing you." **_

Symby. She was deep in his bloodstream, flooding it with warm white blood, surging through his arteries and threading herself around his organs, pushing out the ash from his lungs and patching up the holes, then spreading heavily over his burned skin to heal the scorched dermis. It was like bathing in menthol that soaked through the new pores, numbing him to the pain of healing. It was all Eddie could do not to float away. He anchored himself with the words swimming in his head, questions that demanded answers.

'_How...how did you-?'_

"_**Lost myself in the water." **_Symby pooled at his back, cushioning him from the rough ground beneath. "_**By the time I found you, I… it was too late. Panicked. Found Felicia instead."**_

She was hesitant. Blaming herself for not finding him in time. But she'd done the next best thing. All alone in the wildfire, she'd managed to find the one person who could possibly fix him, the one person who had that power stashed in her pockets.

Eddie realised fairly quickly what the lump in his throat was all along. A Norn stone, pressed deep into the fatal wound. Just as it had resurrected Cletus, it brought him back just in time to see Cletus to replace him in the afterlife. He hoped it was a fair exchange.

'_You two looked really good together,'_ he told Symby, and he liked to think the flare of heat through his veins was her blushing.

"_**We know." **_

He might have said more, but she kept him quiet so he didn't distract her from putting him back together. Or maybe just so he wouldn't make her blush again.

"How is he?" Fuck, Flash was _still_ here? Eddie tried to kick out towards his voice, but Symby stopped that too.  
"Feeling like how I did when _I_ was dying, I imagine," Felicia answered.

"But looks like you got better pretty quickly."  
"I'm tough like that."

"Yeah, you are..."

Eddie was trying to reach out to them again. This time he just wanted to know where Felicia was, how close or far away, but Symby pinned his wrist down, leaving his fingers twitching towards where he could hear her. She sounded exhausted, even worse than he felt.

"_**She's okay, Eddie. You'll see her soon,"**_ Symby promised. "_**Just let me finish up."**_

Eddie felt himself groan from impatience, but he stopped struggling against her. She draped new skin over the last of his burns while Flash went silent for some moments, then clicked his tongue.

"Never thought I'd see Brock's Venom working well with someone without some heavy medication, but… if it was gonna be anyone, of course it'd be you."

Eddie could almost see Felicia's confusion, her head cocking to one side so that her hair spilled over one shoulder in a tumble of silk. "And what makes you say that?"

"Because it's _you_, Felicia. Who else _could_ it have been?" That wouldn't have eased her confusion at all, though it made perfect sense to both Flash and himself. Eddie couldn't help but smile, knowing this wonderful woman had saved him, and somehow he knew she was smiling too.

"I gotta go," Flash was saying over the sound of his own footsteps on the gravel. "But… you both saved the city tonight. I'll make sure everyone knows it."

"Thanks, Flash." She was watching him leave, waiting some long seconds to make sure she was alone now. Eddie could see her standing on the edge of the rooftop, her silhouette cast against the fire annihilating the skyline. He could see her turning to face him, cheeks shining wet in the moonlight, and for a second it looked as if Symby was still clinging to her suit in patches so dark that they must have been voids plucked from space-

Yet his eyes were still closed. He could feel the pressure of the lids on his retinas. As he pried them open, he saw her approaching in snapshots that ended with her kneeling over him, with the back of his head against her lap.

"_**You don't need to open your eyes to see her now," **_Symby whispered, her presence floating between where his body and Felicia's touched. She helped him understand. She had bonded to him, then Felicia, then him again. She'd moved so quickly between them that the symbiotic bond now included the both of them. He could feel Felicia just as he felt Symby in his bones- and, he frighteningly realised, Felicia could feel him in turn.

Even so, when she pulled him against her she couldn't tell if he was still breathing (he wasn't, but that was because Symby had stubbornly taken over his lungs again, intent on scrubbing every cinder away). Though she could feel his pulse, his lingering pain, his heart as if it was her own (as it might as well have been) she wouldn't know for sure he was alright unless he told her himself.

"Eddie…?" Her gloves were gone, and her naked fingers wreathed through his hair, heedless of the sweat and ash that almost turned the blonde to black. Her white strands were almost stained grey, her lips were dry and pale like the rest of her face, and her mask had peeled away, leaving her red glistering eyes looking a lot smaller than he was used to.

Through those red eyes he looked like shit, and through his own she somehow still looked utterly gorgeous.

"_**Talk to her." **_He was trying to, but it wasn't until Symby prodded his vocal cords that he managed to croak anything out.

"...No one's gonna wipe my memory and put me in a robot body, are they?" he asked.

Felicia's sigh sounded more like a sob, and as she sagged she pulled him into her chest, wrapping her arms so tight around his head that he worried she might break his neck. Her heart hammered under his cheek while his hair brushed her chin, and he could feel how cold her skin was even where it was covered in leather.

"That'd be kinda cool, to be honest," he mumbled above her cleavage. "I wouldn't really mind."

Felicia sighed again, though this one was definitely a sob. "Don't ever fucking scare me like that again."

With his head resting on her, Eddie was facing the edge of the roof. He saw the fire still destroying Central Park, crowds standing are close as they dared to the molten fences trying to film the flames, police and firefighters standing by the barricades helplessly. He was sure Flash and maybe some spiders were down there too, waiting to go in and see Carnage's remains, but that wasn't why he couldn't stop looking at the inferno.

He had died in there. He didn't feel resurrected. He had actually _died_ in there. The man who went in wasn't the same man who came back out in Felicia's arms. He didn't even think the man who went in was the same man he was last week, or month, or year, because he was constantly dying and being reborn. New names, new demons every time.

Venom.

Anti-Venom.

Toxin.

And now… now...

Now he was just Eddie. Because Venom was no longer two people, and maybe it was never meant to be only two. It was now three.

"I'll do my best to not die next time," he promised his new Other. And when he said it, he actually meant it, because this new life was one worth living for. He heard Felicia breathe him in, felt her arms loosening, and with his release he pulled himself to her lips-

And, finally, he kissed her again. Slow, tender at first, anxious of how fragile they both were at that moment. But when their tongues touched once more, the fingers wrapped in his hair tightening across his scalp, their shared impatience won out. Neither of them wanted to take the chance in waiting, not after tonight, not now that they finally had a moment to breathe together. He could feel her moans, and growls that were both his and Venom's, at the back of his throat. They amplified the quickening thud of his heart against hers, until it was as if they shared the same thundering pulse. He could feel the skin under her suit just as intimately as the leather itself under his hands, fingers shifting to claws and back again as Symby flowed between them like dark water, healing and energising and pushing them on-

Then something snapped in the air, and they almost bit the tip of each other's tongues off in fright. That was the only thing that pulled them away; the sound of more police arriving to spill onto the road below them, lights flashing so bright that they cast Felicia's face in a red-blue glow and alarms screeching over the roaring flames that felt a hundred miles away.

"The sirens are kinda ruining the mood." Felicia's breath was shuddering against his, arms hooked tight around his shoulders.

"Well you _did _kill one of the most dangerous things on the planet tonight, baby," he mumbled back.

"All the more reason for us to get out of here."

"You have somewhere in mind?" Eddie could hardly breathe without moaning, unable to hold them back without another pair of lips to muffle them. Those lips were smirking as Felicia pressed her bottom lip between her teeth, and Eddie couldn't help mirroring her, if only to stop himself seizing her whole mouth again.

"Maybe," she teased in his ear. "You'll find out if you can keep up with me."

She slipped out of his grasp for the second time that night, but now he was right behind her. Symby poured over him, and when Felicia looked back through the blur of white she was trailing behind her he knew just how happy she was to see Venom flying after her so eagerly. He knew everything she was feeling, everything she was anticipating. He also already knew where she was heading, but that didn't make the chase any less arousing. Fatigue, suffering, hesitation… there was simply no room left in his body for any of that. Felicia and Symby had taken up every spare inch of space within him, and for them he could only feel one thing, one thing that would have carried him to the other end of the world if she or both of them were waiting there.

As it was, Felicia was only running halfway across the city this time. She'd only had a second's head start on him, yet was already slipping through her apartment window by the time Venom reached the edge of the roof across from it. He followed her, shedding just enough symbiote mass to fit through without breaking anything, and even in the dark he could see her perfectly; perched on her bed, boots thrown aside, the zipper of her suit already pulled down for him. Her teeth flashed as she pulled her arms out of the sleeves, while he was closing the distance and trying to undress himself. One step, his shoes were gone. Two, Symby helped pull his shirt over his head so he could throw it across the room. At three, he couldn't wait any longer. He threw himself on her, and brought himself home to her mouth once more. Here in the close comfort of her room, there wasn't so much need for hunger and frenzy. Now he felt... clumsy, desperate compared to her careful teasing and the nipping of her teeth along his lips- but she didn't seem to mind so much. She was enjoying his muscles, rubbing deep into his naked shoulders and triceps, trailing fingers across his chest while he was busy trying to free hers. She hadn't gotten as far as pulling her underwear free, but he was glad for that. Like in the dreams, he wanted to unwrap her himself. While she sighed and raked sharp nails over his back he pulled under the edge of her bra, planning to unhook it-

_Snip._

But Venom's claws sliced right through the straps. She didn't even notice, or care, as she yanked it off and out of the way. In the dark, with only the moonlight from her window casting any edge to the supple hills of her breasts, Eddie was still mesmerised. Out of all the countless men who'd spent hours of their lives just imagining what lay under the leather, wondering just how tight the fit to her skin was, only a handful of them had ever seen it for themselves (and even less of those would have been able to hold more than a handful of her breasts...). They might have been called the lucky ones, but for once with Black Cat it had nothing to do with luck and everything to do with impressing her, making her wonder about them just as much as they did her.

As Eddie stroked black fingers with blunted claws across her chest, Venom's huge hands easily and slowly kneading the soft warmth as softer sighs slipped through her lips, he couldn't help but notice something about them, and he knew he was about to risk throwing his night away by pointing it out.

But, after surviving death itself and getting this far, he favoured his chances with a smirk that made her eyes glitter under him. She was expecting something good.

"One's a little bigger than the other," he said, squeezing the slightly smaller one first with the look of a man who knew full well he was about to be punched for it. Felicia didn't go that far as she groaned in disbelief, but she still slapped at his forehead with the back of her hand while the other was still splayed out above her.

"Here I was hoping most men didn't notice that…"

"We don't, usually," Eddie admitted, still favouring her smaller breast with his symbiote-covered palm. "I'm just the pain in the ass exception. Though, y'know… smaller ones are a little more sensitive." He licked his lips, intent on proving his point for her as he lowered his face to her cleavage and pushed her breast towards it. His tongue touched her nipple just before the rest of his mouth latched on, and he watched her gasp just before the moan that came to filled all the space in her lungs.

'_Just like that, baby...' _Either she'd gone just as long as him without sharing her bed with anyone, or he was a lot better at this than he thought. He supposed being so used to controlling an unwieldy three-foot long alien tongue helped a lot. Whatever the reason... Felicia was loving it. He knew it because he could _feel _it, each lick and kiss sending tingles across her skin right through to her heart. He sucked until she was cursing under her breath, massaging her other breast with Symby rippling across the pads of his fingers, and only after that did he give her the chance to recover. He resisted the urge to shove his face a lot further down, if only because he wanted to get her even wetter first. He didn't need to check if she was already wet- he could feel the heat shared between them, her arousal radiating out from his own bones (with one in particular that he was doing his best to reign in for now) and his reflected in every moan he eased out of her.

"Still not convinced?" He mumbled in a kiss along her cleavage, still rubbing and eyeing her other breast. She looked down at him through a hazy grin.

"Not quite…"

"Well, I'm just gonna have to try harder then." Eddie moved his head to the other side now, much less subtle and tender this time with his tongue as it circled her nipple, lapping across it and sucking hard before he caught it between his teeth, pulling just enough to tug the flesh up and give Venom's hand more to squeeze and fondle as her back arched under him.

"_**She wants us, Eddie." **_Symby dwelled in the edges of his brain and muscles, only giving him enough energy to use them to full advantage and helping him overlook the ache of his cock straining against his jeans.

'_I know. Not just yet, though.' _He was sure that Felicia was the one who usually did all the teasing, so it was up to him to turn the tables on her. Most of all he wanted to savour her for as long as possible, right up until it was physically impossible to hold back. One of them would give in first, and he didn't really care who it was so long as he made her cum by the end of it. Until then, he'd milk as many moans and curses as he could from her, and he seized her mouth just as a whine hissed out from it. His tongue dipped in deep, encouraged by her fingers curled tight in his hair, and it only broke free when Felicia felt his hand sliding down her front, soaring past the line of her panties to push his middle finger- more like a smooth black talon with Symby covering it- inside her. He wasn't surprised at how wet she was already, only at how loudly she moaned even with his mouth over hers. Then again, Symby was helping reach in even deeper by slowly thickened his claw before ebbing away again, literally throbbing to spread her walls apart. He couldn't help smirking as he pushed in and out, rubbing his thumb over her swollen clit in circles that made her come undone in mewls and shudders from within, with pleasure that he felt the echoes of ringing out through his own nerves.

"F...F-fuck, Eddie…" Felicia struggled to breathe with so much heavy air pushing out her lungs, and her fingers scrambled for purchase along Eddie's back as hers arched into him again. She was thrusting into his fingers, then against the bulge in his pants, and by then he was lost to her. He needed to get it all off, he _needed _to be inside her as she squeezed and pulsed and rippled so overwhelmingly around him, and the need came out in a growl as he let go of her mouth and dragged his teeth down the curve of her waist, towards where his hand was just pulling away towards the fragile edge of her soaked underwear. He saw the fabric pull away from his fingers as they slipped down her hip-

And then something else that, despite his climbing frenzy to fuck her, he couldn't help laughing at. Felicia didn't look impressed at him snorting against her thigh.

"What is it now?" she sighed, wearily propping herself up on her elbows so she didn't need to look down her cleavage at him again.

"Hello Kitty panties." Eddie tugged at where the elastic hugged her hip with black claws (blunted this time), letting it snap back against her skin. "How are you so adorable and sexy at the same time?"

"If you like them so much, I'll just keep them on then-"

He cut her off instantly with a growl. "Oh no, you're not." With the edge of the fabric caught in his canines, he undressed her by pulling his face down the thick flesh of her thigh, watching her face the whole time. When he reached her knees and she looked down at him through the valley of her legs, her tongue not quite able to stay inside her slack mouth, it was like she was already about to orgasm.

Symby assured him that she was, and with that ego boost he figured he was allowed to be as smug and cocky as he wanted right up until she finally did.

"I'm not even naked yet and you're already awestruck."

Felicia's eyebrows shot up when he muttered that as he started kissing his way back up toher, and he wondered if she somehow knew where he'd gotten it from.

If she did, she had other priorities in the way of letting him know.  
"Just get up here and fuck me," she moaned. Eddie hadn't been expecting her to be the one who crumbled first, but he was far from complaining about it as he yanked his pants down all at once, and Symby pulled them the rest of the way off so he could focus on what was important- Felicia. Panting under him. Leaning in, embracing him so close that her skin was against every breath he took, letting him hold her thighs so her legs were in the air and spread wide before closing tight around his waist, with the perfect angle for sheathing himself inside with a thrust-

"Wait."

Felicia grabbed one of his arms, and Eddie had to slam the brakes on his hips when he realised the sound from her wasn't just another moan. "Hmf?"

He looked down at her, the white locks spilled under her head, the glaze over her hooded eyes that told him she was struggling to not sink in just as much as he was, but still wondered with fear whether she'd just realised that he didn't deserve her.

"Birth control," she said.

"...Ah. Shit." It wasn't what he was scared of hearing, but it was the one thing he'd completely forgotten about. He slowly, reluctantly released his grip on her legs, though they still stayed looped around him just to keep tormenting him.

"Do you have any?" she asked, as if she was actually expecting him to be prepared. He wasn't even expecting to survive tonight, let alone live long enough to be having sex at the end of it.

"Do _you_?" he countered, only half-worrying about losing his erection since he might not even get to satisfy it.

"Oh, I remember now." Her eyes and teeth flashed in the dark. "If a Catholic so much as looks at a condom, they need to splash their eyes with holy water."

"Funny. It's just… been a while since I've had to use any." Eddie looked away for a moment, hating that he had to admit that.

"Could've fooled me," Felicia said, wiggling her eyebrows to let him know she was serious. It helped a little, and Eddie showed his appreciation with a gentler kiss as Symby whispered something to him. When he pulled away, he figured it was worth a try.

"I think we can fix this." He straightened and leaned back on his knees, so his dick hung heavily between them, and tried not to watch her reaction to it with how self-conscious he was already. Instead he focused on the black oozing along it, flowing over his cock and solidifying into a second layer of skin that was somehow tight enough to outline the veins beneath without being uncomfortable. Symby assured him she wouldn't break or tear, but he wasn't the one taking the biggest risk in trusting her to hold her form. He tested the condom, holding back a groan as he rubbed near the base of his cock, and only then looked to Felicia.

Surprisingly, she wasn't skeptical. She actually looked impressed, as much as she tried to hide it.

"You're just doing that to make it look bigger," she said with a pout that only made him want to fuck her more.

"Baby, I don't _need_ to make it any bigger than it already is." He was close to her face once more, inhaling the thick musk of her arousal stained between them, and made to kiss her again… and instead pressed his forehead against hers as he thrusted inside.

"_Hoooooly_ shit…" Felicia's moan was dragged out by how much of him she was taking, only reaching its peak when Eddie reached his hilt.

"Told you." His cockiness, as deserved as it was, was almost buried by his own moan as it ripped through his throat, flying right past Symby's filters. It had really been so long that he'd forgotten how good it felt… through the symbiote-sheath he could feel Felicia parting around him, clamping down wet and tight, and her nails digging so deep into his back he was sure there'd be scars the next morning. Her grip eased slightly, as if she regretted how hard she clawed at him, but he pulled back just enough so that she'd feel his balls thud against her when he re-entered, so that she'd know he didn't mind whatever she did to him- so long as she didn't mind what he did to her.

And that was how it started. Slowly but forcefully, the retreat of his hips leaving just enough space between them to ignite the wet friction when they thrust forward again, never fully leaving her. Felicia met every thrust in kind, moaning too much and too loud to kiss him while he panted and growled, carefully watching her through hooded eyes even though he didn't need to. He knew when he hit in just right, when he stroked against all the right nerves, because he could feel their sparks casting off of her and onto him, setting every sense alight.

"Fuck… **Felicia**…" The snarl that rumbled against her neck almost shocked Eddie, even though it was mostly him. Symby had been flexing, rippling around his cock as it cleaved through Felicia, but that wasn't all she did. She'd kept herself in the background til now, only wanting to help Eddie arouse Felicia, but the overload of chemical entropy and guttural groans between them both would have been too much to resist. He felt her on his skin, a patchwork presence, dripping down his muscles and clinging to them as they tensed and stretched from all his efforts, following the path of sweat trickling down his body. With all his focus on controlling his hips and all the darkness around them, he hadn't noticed that she'd oozed onto Felicia as well, not until a web of black tendrils crawled along the underside of her breasts while they bounced with every thrust into her.

He paused for a second. He was going to ask if Felicia minded Symby being involved, just before a familiar mouth covered hers and then his own. Symby's tongue under Felicia's control, almost pushing into throat, was something warm and thick and so, so surprisingly sexy. Even with how he'd felt when he first saw the two together, he wasn't expecting a kiss from them to be as hot as it was. He wasn't sure how long it lasted for until the intrusion faded, and he realised that the tongue was now his and he was the one ravishing her with it- as if Symby had simply flowed over to him through their saliva. It was so seamless, so simple a transition, that he didn't quite know where he ended and either of them began. This was more than just being inside her; they'd completely coalesced.

Considering he had no intentions of separating, that suited him perfectly. He flicked the tongue across the dulled fangs that came with it, and Felicia responded with a wink that told him she didn't think any of this was all that weird. Or, if she did, she didn't mind it. Most people ran away screaming from any sign of Venom, and here she was happily making out with him.

Symby suddenly pinched tight around his cock, telling him very pointedly that he was getting distracted. More like he was trying to hold out on his orgasm, but there was only so much he could do with someone like Felicia writhing under him and something like Symby caressing him. The more she moaned, the more she arched and clawed into him, the harder it was to keep control. He could feel how close she was, her smaller climaxes only adding to the tension that was pulling on his, and he knew he wouldn't last much longer.

So he'd just have to make the most of however much of the night was left.

He regained his grip on her thighs, making sure the angle was perfect, and doubled his pace. In and out, hard and steady thrusts, a rhythm building between all three of them, a sparking circuit where the only thing louder than their moans, the only thing drowning out the squelch and soft slaps of their symbiote-flesh coming together, was the sound of the headboard slamming against the wall. Eddie had gripped the top of it for leverage, and the metal bar crumpled like paper under his claws.

"**Your neighbours are gonna fuckin' hate us." **As he grinned through his growl, pressing his fangs along her neck, they left him and surged back to her own mouth by the time she effortlessly flipped him over on his back, pinning him down to the other side of the bed.

"**Good." **Felicia winked again under the white swirls of her eyes, and pulled his hand to her chest. As soon as his fingers reached her breast, the palm was glued there by symbiote ooze as she started riding his lap, with so much of Venom's tongue hanging from her mouth that he half expected it to slide down her cleavage. He might have thought he was still dead and stuck in heaven all along, but heaven hadn't looked or felt as good as this. The pleasure was like light bouncing off of a room of mirrors, never losing its intensity, a feedback loop where everything that went in was amplified over and over until it was spilling back out through their mouths, every sensation shared and doubled over and over through the symbiote; swelling, groaning, fusing, multiplying, mounting, until finally...

They came. Eddie almost thought he blacked out in space from the stars bursting in his eyes, so overwhelmed by her and himself and the drop in pressure from his blood.

His throat was hoarse by the time the moans faded, and he couldn't even hold his head up from the pillow beneath it. Then, when he realised he was somehow still conscious, he felt sweat-damp hair between his fingers, hot gasps in the crook of his neck, a warm body nestled close to his heaving chest. His cock had slipped out of Felicia, but she held onto him as if they were still joined. Symby lay bloated with dopamine, her consciousness hanging suspended between them. He wasn't sure if she was still wrapped around him, but he hardly cared about whatever messes there were to clean up. They'd wait until tomorrow...

But one thing still floating in his head wouldn't wait that long.

"Felicia…." He had to whisper, both because he was too exhausted to go any louder and because he was so worried of breaking the spell. "How long have we known each other?"

She had to wait until her gasps had calmed down before she could answer, mumbling against his neck. "Including times we tried to kill each other? About ten years… why?"

Eddie inhaled her, closing his eyes and hoping he'd fall asleep so he'd know this wasn't just another dream. Though if it was, then the question would have been a lot easier to ask.

"Just wondering if it's too soon to say that we love you."

She didn't say anything for a few long moments. But then he felt her shift in his arms and then her lips, already so familiar to him, with a hint of Symby's tongue against him. She didn't need to say whether she loved them too, because the answer was already in Symby, already there in each others' heads.

And, as long as she was with at least one of them, it would never go away.


	28. Morning 1

The first thing Felicia saw when she awoke were the giant dents left in the metal headboard of her bed, moulded right into the steel. And the only way she could have seen those first were if her head was arching back into her pillow for some reason-

"Mmmh…! Ffffuck…!" She quickly found out what the reason was, as the tongue near her spasming pussy rubbed against her clit, filling her already-gaping mouth with even more moans than those that woke her up in the first place. She heard others on top of her own and the wet squish of her own arousal mixing with saliva, and though she recognised them it still took her a few seconds after her climax to remember who she'd spent the night with. She felt his hair curled tight in her fingers, as she held on and pushed his face deeper into her, but every other sense was drowned out by her orgasm. It was only when the fringes of it were left in her body that she was able to summon the strength to pull her head up enough to look down at him. Only some parts of him were covered in laminate symbiote that reflected the sun streaming in through her window, but even so he was so big that he had to kneel to keep himself on her bed. Not that he seemed to mind; he was too busy devouring her to be bothered by anything else.

"Eddie…"

"**Mmmmh…" **He paused at the sound of his name on her breath; blue eyes flicking up to look at her under heavy lids, with black claws holding her legs open and black ink creeping up his jaw. The top half of his face was Eddie, while his mouth was all Venom; teeth and tongue and drool shining on her thighs. The base of that giant tongue was still pressed into her clit, which meant the rest of it… must have been inside.

No wonder it felt so good. Then again, he'd already told her that it would. He must have just been so eager to prove himself right.

"**Good morning, kitten." **Somehow he was able to speak clearly with his tongue lodged so deep inside her, and when he did she felt it flicking and flaring out, soaking her up as the tips of his fangs scraped so lightly against her skin. Those razor teeth that could crack through bone with minimal effort actually felt _ticklish_, and when Felicia tensed her legs it only made her contract around his tongue even more. He huffed through a proud smile, blowing hot air across her body that made her giggle even more. The bubbles of laughter were undercut with moans, and a single question.

"What _are_ you doing?"

Eddie glanced away for a moment, like it should have been completely obvious what he was doing (it was, but Felicia wanted to hear him try to speak inside her again).

Then he did something truly evil; he pulled his tongue out from her pussy by moving his head up, so that every raised tastebud would drag along her clit in one torturously long lick. And he watched her the whole time; how she bit down so hard on her lip to stop from groaning, how her eyes fluttered as her body clenched. As the last inch left her, still joined by a thin trail of her own juices, the symbiote peeled away from his jaw so nothing masked his smug grin.

"Having breakfast," he answered, actually having the nerve to lick his lips. "You want us to stop?"

Felicia thought it over for a second, recovering from the barrage on her most sensitive parts. She'd fallen asleep while wondering what being eaten out, not just _eaten_, by Venom would be like, but she hadn't expected to get her answer so soon. Symby must have give the idea to Eddie, when he woke up before her. That was how he knew she wouldn't mind the awakening.

So, really, they both would have known her answer without her having to say it. But she said it anyway.

"Absolutely fucking not." She shoved his face right back down, just as Symby surged back over his jaw so he could plunge their tongue right back into her. It rippled and flailed as he practically fucked her with it, even vibrating when he growled, until she was writhing so much that he had to almost lift her halfway off the bed to keep his tongue where it belonged. He slurped and sucked, not in desperation to make her cum like some other men (regardless of how completely unfair it was to compare him to anyone else) but out of reverence of how good she tasted. She could practically feel the testosterone flooding through under his skin, diluting his bloodstream while pieces of Symby swam through it. He was feral; feasting on her, viciously claiming every drop he squeezed out of her, lapping every inch of her wet folds. He'd remove his tongue just to smother her slit with it, and it was only through the haze of another orgasm that Felicia realised he was tracing a wide V into her core with every lick. Literally marking her with his name.

She might have been offended if it wasn't so sexy, and if she wasn't so glad to be his. And, after all, it was a name they now shared with the alien mingling in their veins.

Like flint sparking against steel, Symby's presence was fuel to the fires chasing themselves across Felicia's neurons- even louder than the fire that almost killed them just a few hours ago, roaring and blazing and howling sighs so deep from her own lungs…

That she almost didn't hear the incessant knocking on her front door. She didn't _want _to hear it, but after a full half-minute of trying to ignore the banging it was clear that it wasn't going to go away.

"Eddie… mmmn, Eddie, I need to get the door…" Felicia closed her thighs around his head to signal him to slow down, lifting her hips off the bed to try and force his face away, but he was as reluctant to let her go as she was to move. He stubbornly nuzzled back into her, whining through his growls and tethering himself back to her with black tendrils, and all she could do was laugh and try to fight against his affection. Eventually he gave up, pulling his jaw away from the symbiote inside her as the ooze pulled back on its own terms. He cocked his head to kiss the inside of her thigh, while Symby curled tendrils through his hair to mimic Felicia's fingers desperately holding on to him.

"Probably just a neighbour we've kept up all night Want us to scare them off?" he asked, while whoever was outside kept on demanding attention. Felicia kept sighing as she sat up, reaching for the dressing gown at the side of her bed instead of bothering to search out some clothes.

"No, I'll deal with it. You just stay here and give that mouth a break." She leaned down to kiss that gifted mouth, and had to push him away when he tried his luck with moving his lips to the bite-mark bruises over her neck. She giggled, he growled, and the rumble that passed from both their throats was only intensified by the symbiote surging between them. Symby stayed with Eddie while Felicia tied the front of her gown, and let Felicia knew how much he appreciated the sight of her butt swishing as he watched her go. It kept her giggling all the way to the front door, right up until she looked through the peephole.

She wished she'd put clothes on after all, but it was too late now. She was sure her guest could sense she was already at the door, like he was able to 'sense' so many other unimportant things. She sighed, much much deeper than any other she'd uttered that morning, and tugged her gown tighter around her as she pulled the door open.

Just as she'd seen him through the hole, Peter Parker stood before her, with ash on his face that wasn't as dark as the heavy bruises weighing down his eyes. He looked like he hadn't slept in a week- yet still looked better than how she usually saw him out-of-costume nowadays. There was a newspaper tucked tightly under his arm, as if he was worried she'd steal it right out his hand (if she did, it wouldn't have been the most blatant theft she'd ever managed).

"Felicia." He greeted her as if he was relieved that she answered the door after all. A few years ago, she'd have felt the same to him. A few months ago, she'd have tried to kill him through the letterbox. Today, she only wanted to ask him something.

"How the hell do you know where I live?!" Was this how Eddie felt when she first showed up at his place? She made a note to apologise for that at some point.

"That's not important," Peter insisted, running his hand through his hair as if the effort would make it any less of a mess. "We need to talk. Can I come in?"

Felicia bit her lip before she blurted out something that would just make him suspicious. The last thing she needed was one of her exes meeting her new man (and symbiote), even if they didn't already hate each other's guts. And, considering all the hero-level shit she went through last night, whatever Peter had to tell her that was worth tracking her down for would have been trivial in comparison.

"I'm a little _busy_ right now," she hissed, crossing her hands over her chest and desperately hoping Peter was really too exhausted to wonder why she wasn't dressed. But, for once, he didn't even give her a second glance over as he barged in right past her.

"So am I," he said, speaking quickly so she didn't have room to get in edgewise and tell him to get the hell out, "but since I just spent all night helping make sure the city didn't burn down, I figured I deserved a break. So I go to my favourite donut shop for breakfast, I grab a paper to see how Jameson's managed to blame it all on Spider-Man this time, and what do I see on the front page?" He headed straight for her tiny kitchen while she was grateful she'd firmly closed her bedroom door, and he slapped the newspaper down on the table as she stamped after him with a scowl.

When Felicia caught sight of the paper, her anger became confusion, then briefly guilt, back to confusion, before finally culminating in the same thing all thieves muttered when they'd just been caught red-handed.

"Ah, shit..."

The headline was bad enough; '_WHAT'S BLACK, WHITE, AND READ ALL OVER? THIS DAILY BUGLE EXPOSE ON BLACK CAT AND VENOM'S SECRET LOVE AFFAIR'. _She was sure Jameson himself came up with that one, just like all the cat puns he used to make during her first years of crime. And below all that bold crowded together was a picture taken just ten or so hours ago, when the moon was still trying to outclass the inferno destroying New York. She and Eddie- well, she and what looked like a Greek statue hewn out of black marble, lips locked and tongues tied. Most of Eddie's face was thankfully hidden in the hood of Symby's mouth stretched over his head, and there was so much pixel grain from how far the camera was and how they both blended into the night that it looked like something found on a conspiracy website, but there was no mistaking that it was Venom kissing Black Cat.

Which was her.

Her kissing Venom.

Which everyone in the city- and very possibly the whole world- now knew about.

Peter was having just as much trouble as her with processing it, and he'd probably known about it for at least an hour now.

"Felicia… please tell me this is photoshopped," he pleaded, sagged over in the chair he'd taken for himself. "Or that you've got an evil clone, cause trust me, that's actually possible. Or… or I don't know, just _something _other than what I'm seeing here!"

Felicia let him torture himself with whatever was and wasn't the truth for another minute as she skimmed the article, still drawing her eyes back to the damning photo every few seconds. It was mostly speculation and sensation, probably with a few eyewitness accounts from the other petty thugs who'd been at Central Park last night, and just as she was going to turn the page she caught a credit in tiny font beneath the photo; Fred Myers.

She had no idea how a guy who only ever carried around boomerangs was able to take a picture that high up, nor how he'd managed to get her at her worst angle. All she knew was that, the next time she saw him, he was dead.

"I hate it when people don't ask permission first. So fucking rude..." She sighed and threw herself down on the seat opposite Peter, just as he jumped up from his. For a second she was worried he was going to stick to her ceiling, but all he did was hold his head in his hands as if he was worried it was about to roll off his neck.

"Venom? Seriously?! Out of _all_ the men in New York, literally _millions_ of them, you chose _him_?!" He was getting hysterical, and she was certain his voice was bleeding through the walls.

"Would you keep your voice down?" Felicia hissed, standing in the kitchen doorway to make sure Eddie didn't come barging in from the bedroom. "You're not the only one who's had a long night."

"_Ohhhh_, well I can quite clearly see that, Ms Hardy! Or, sorry, is it _Mrs Venom _already?" He cracked jokes to cover up the ones forming all over his voice. Usually that annoyed the hell out of her, but now she was struggling not to laugh at his expense.

"I don't know why you're so surprised, Pete," she said with a shrug, deciding to milk his horror for all it was worth. "Have you seen that tongue?" That tongue that could stretch her apart and lap at her insides… she had to squeeze her thighs together to squash the fresh surge of arousal that came up between them.

"I've seen more than enough of it for one lifetime," he answered, "on account of it always trying to _eat my fucking head_!"

"He doesn't really eat brains, you know," she pointed out. '_Just pussy'_, she didn't add at the last second.

"That doesn't matter! I-!" He reached some kind of breaking point within himself, and had to force himself to cool off by hissing air through his teeth, closing his eyes before they bulged any more out of their sockets. When he pulled himself together with a sigh, his face was still red but the vein on his forehead wasn't swelling quite so much at least.

"Just… how long has this been going on for?"

Felicia wondered about that. Did she exaggerate her answer just to torture him, or did she tell the truth just to make sure he didn't explode? She decided on a mixture of both.

"About three weeks." That was when she first broke into Eddie's apartment. Peter hadn't specified what 'this' was exactly, so it was perfectly truthful as far as she was concerned.

He exhaled, as if he'd been expecting worse, and sat down again. "God, it'd be one thing if _Flash_ was still Venom, that I'd kinda understand, at least!"

"Ahh, I see," Felicia teased. "You're just upset I'm with Eddie."

"Of course I'm upset about it! He's a fucking lunatic!"

Felicia felt a flare of irritation, mostly on Eddie's behalf. She smothered it, in case he could sense it through the walls and take it as a cue to come out. He must have known who was here with her by now, thanks to Peter announcing himself and his righteous anger so eagerly, and she was probably the only reason he was still in her bedroom, waiting patiently (or impatiently) for him to leave.

"I actually think he's a lot like you, in some ways," Felicia said, leaning on a counter opposite Peter so she could see him recoil in disgust. "The cute kind of dorky, more than the annoying kind. Though, of course, he's got over sixty pounds of muscle and five inches of height on you-"

"Yeah, yeah, okay! You've made your point!" Peter threw up his hands in defeat, before she went into all the other ways Eddie was better than him.

"I'm just saying," she said with an evil smile, "jealousy doesn't suit you."

"I am not _jealous_, okay? If you must know, me and MJ are doing very well together. That has nothing to do with any of this, this is about making sure _you_ don't end up dead!"

Felicia could sense a lecture on the way, and was already rolling her eyes. What was it about some men that made them think they had to babysit you your whole life, even after breaking up? It was exhausting.

"I think you worry too much about things that are none of your Goddamn business," she told him, not smiling or laughing anymore. Even though she was only in a dressing gown, her hair in a tangled mass over her shoulder, she knew exactly how fearsome she could look if she wanted to. She saw it reflected in Peter's eyes, just before he looked away with a sigh.

"Look, all I'm saying is… be careful." He turned around in his chair to face her properly, throwing his hands up again with much different intentions this time. Trying to convince her that he had no hidden agenda, nothing hidden at all from her. just the genuine concern of an old friend.

"I don't know what's been happening between you and Eddie," he admitted, "or why over half of Central Park burned down or why Cletus Kasady's body was found in it and, hell, I don't even _want _to know why Norman Osborn was found giggling to himself in a bunch of goblin wreckage. But I _do_ know how dangerous and unpredictable Brock can be, even without the symbiote. Even if he's somehow convinced you that he's different now, he will _always_ be the same sadistic maniac that spent so long hunting me down _and_ who almost killed you in the process."

Felicia listened, even though every word was wrong. The man she made love with last night wasn't the same who'd brutalised her, who'd once dedicated his life to killing people like Peter. If he was, she wouldn't be talking to Peter right now in her kitchen, while he was sitting just a room away from them; she'd be chasing him down while he threw Peter through the bricks of the building. She wasn't sure if he was even the same man she'd spoken to on that night three weeks ago, when she first realised she'd need his help.

He'd changed, just as she had. But, unlike her, he'd changed for the better. Peter wouldn't understand that. How could he? He'd never _had _to change for anyone, cause he was just born the perfect hero. She was almost about to ask what he had against Symby too, but he didn't know her by that name. He didn't even know her as a '_her_', and quite frankly Felicia was happy to keep it that way.

Because who she chose to love, who she thought was worth staying with, was none of his Goddamn business. He'd given up any right to her life a long time ago, and she was actually glad for it.

"I appreciate the warning, Pete," she said, almost sincerely, "but I think the Eddie you're used to is a lot different from the one I've gotten to know."

"Felicia, there is only one kind of Eddie Brock, and he is a ruthless, murdering, psychopath."

"And yet that 'psychopath' almost died last night saving the whole city from a superpowered serial killer." She pushed off from the counter at her back, crossing her arms tight over her chest. "Where were you during all of that, Spidey?"

By the time she was standing before him, Peter didn't have an answer ready that would negate her point. So he just changed the point entirely.

"He's in your bedroom, isn't he?"

Felicia stayed silent for as long as she could, still crossed over her chest. Then she went through the doorway to go knock on her bedroom door.

"Eddie, put some clothes on and get in here." When she went back to the kitchen, smiling despite herself at the look of utter displeasure on Peter's face, she heard the door click open behind her. When Eddie joined them, clad in symbiote clothes still settling into place, he didn't so much stand in the doorway as tower within it, almost hitting the top of it with his head as he leaned against it and glared over at their guest.

"Parker."

"Brock."

"You look like shit."

"And you _are _shit."

Felicia put herself between them so they didn't leap for each other's throats. "You, shut up," she said with a jab on Peter's shoulder. "And you, look at this." She pushed the newspaper against Eddie's chest, and as he read over the front page with one hand and ever-deepening confusion he drifted away from the doorway, eventually ending up at the table beside her.

"Who the hell is 'Fred Myers'?!" he demanded, as if that was really the most important thing at the moment. Peter was standing now, eager to get the hell away from Eddie at the earliest convenience.

"Look, I've said my piece," he declared to Felicia, "I've made my disgust very evident. What you choose to do with what I've said is up to you."

"Noted," Eddie said, tossing the paper back onto the table so his hand was free to pull Felicia closer by her waist. "Now fuck off."

Peter frowned, but didn't shift.

"You heard the man," Felicia said, gladly pulling Eddie's arm tighter around her while Symby reached for her from his sleeve. "Fuck off."

"Or what?" Peter asked, hands on his hips.

"Or you'll have to see what he's gonna do to me on this table."

Peter stalled, as if wondering whether she was being serious, before finally deciding that it wasn't worth the mental scarring to find out. "Okay. Gross. Goodbye."

Once the front door thumped shut, Eddie exhaled deeply, still holding onto Felicia for support. "So… our secret's out."

Felicia folded her hand on top of his, cocking her head to look down at the newspaper once more and all the implications that came with it. "I'd say it lasted for… five seconds? Maybe six?"

"New record for me." His chin weighed down on top of her head, and it felt so natural it was as if he had always been so close without her noticing until now.

"_**At least it's a nice picture of me," **_his shirt added.

"That'll be cause you're in over half the frame, Symby," Eddie told her, just as his shirt started vibrating. Not from Symby, though. The black bubbled near his shoulder, and when Eddie put his hand there it peeled back and deposited a buzzing phone into his palm. He looked just as puzzled to hear it going off as Felicia was.

"It's my boss, so I'm probably in trouble," he sighed while letting go of her.

"You had your phone there this whole time and it's still _working_?" she asked. It survived being dumped in water, bashed, stabbed and cooked, yet her phones always shattered if she so much as held it the wrong way.

"Stark tech just refuses to break until the warranty's up, I guess." He swiped to answer and held it to his ear. "Yeah?"

"_Sym, I've been trying to call you all morning! Where the hell have you been?!" _Eddie had moved to the other side of the kitchen, but Felicia could still hear the other voice leaking through the receiver.

"Sorry, ma'am, I, uh… had a late night trying to chase Venom down. I slept in."

"_Well someone beat you to it on the one night he does something other than web up purse snatchers. Have you seen the Bugle's front page?"_

"Looking at it right now…" And he was, pulling it over to his side of the table with his free hand while Felicia blatantly eavesdropped.

"_Did you have any idea about this?!"_

"Absolutely none at all. I… guess Venom's just good at keeping secrets when he wants to." He flashed a wink over at Felicia, leaving her to wonder just how long he'd been keeping up this scam for.

"_Well, thanks to _you _not keeping close enough tabs on him, the Bugle's selling out all over the city cause they're the only ones who got pictures of this happening!"_

"...People are really that interested?"

"_Of course they are. It's just like a celebrity scandals, only with criminals in costumes. Now listen very closely; since you're the only one around here willing to even get close to Venom, I need you to go out there and find something we can compete with."_

"You… want _more_ villainous affairs, emphasis on the 'affairs' part?"  
"_Preferably with these two, since they're already so popular."_

Eddie stared into the distance, with a thought twinkling in his eyes. Then he glanced at Felicia again, as if searching for something in her before he spoke. Whatever he found or didn't find, he took it as permission to go ahead.

"What if... I can guarantee _exclusive_ insight into this… relationship?" he asked.

"_You manage that, Sym," _his phone replied, "_and you'd be looking at a promotion."_

"Just leave it to me. I'm sure I'll have something ready by this evening." He hung up, and found Felicia staring over at him under raised eyebrows.

"You're gonna exploit our relationship for easy money?" she asked, leaning back in her seat with, once again, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Now that they know about it, someone's gonna." Eddie shrugged as he dropped his phone flat onto the table. "At least I can make sure the details are right."

Felicia still pouted skeptically, not entirely sold on the whole concept of being even more of a tabloid magnet than usual, but then Eddie's hand found her shoulder and his mouth touched her neck, and it was impossible to stay mad.

"What kind of details...?" She had to hold back a shudder when his hand dipped into her robe, pulling the soft fabric across her bare breast before he covered it with his warm palm.

"Like how cute you are when you try to stay quiet," he mumbled, picking her up so easily that she didn't even realise she was off the floor until he sat her on top of the table. Her robe spilled open now, torn apart by his greedy fingers as he still kissed her neck, and where she touched his back she could feel Symby pulling away to let her feel his bare skin beneath.

"It _is_ pretty hot," Felicia admitted, "everyone knowing I'm banging a monster…"

"If I quote you on that, should I try and spell out the moans too?"

"Fuck you, Eddie…"

"If you insist." He chuckled against her skin, letting her feel his fangs nip as he stroked his hand across her thigh. "Though maybe we should shower first."

"I don't know if mines is big enough for two," she teased, knowing full well, as he did too, it would easily fit them both.

"How about three?" he asked, and though the growl he edged it with was one of the sexiest things she'd ever heard she couldn't help but realise something.  
"I thought Symby couldn't go in showers?"

Eddie paused abruptly, his breath stalling on her throat.

"...I ... might have lied about that," he confessed with a guilty hiss. Felicia fixed him with another raised eyebrow, before making her own confession in his ear.

"I lied too."

"Hm?"

"I had birth control the whole time. I just wanted to see what a symbiote on a cock really looked like."  
Eddie was silent for a second, then his and Symby's shared laughter swept her off her feet just before he did it literally. "Oh, you are a dirty little kitten..."

With her robe left on the floor and her head on his chest, she let him carry her to the bedroom and then to the shower, melting into him once more under the warm water and warmer alien that immersed them both.


	29. Epilogue

"_**Are you sure this will work, Eddie?"**_

"Not at all. But I guess it's worth a shot." Even though the graveyard was deserted, he kept his voice low just in case. Though, with the exhumed grave and the hill of dirt beside it standing just a few feet away from him, being overheard talking to himself was the least of his worries. Surprisingly the actual digging wasn't so difficult, with Symby simply absorbing the dirt and displacing it somewhere else until they reached Looter's coffin. The hard part was trying not to throw up when he cracked the coffin open.

Cletus and Eddie had gotten lucky with their resurrections; one had mostly been preserved by the vacuum of space and the other hadn't been dead nearly long enough for any rot to set in. But Norton… well, he'd been dead for at least two weeks now. And even with his body being embalmed and made-up as well as could be managed, the only thing worse than the sight was the smell. And this whole time he'd thought fresh dead bodies were bad enough for his conscience... Eddie had to have Symby plug his nose before he could get close enough to push the Norn stone into the wound carved through Norton's chest, the wound that still stood out among the rotting ulcers all over the rest of him.

In every tragedy, every cliche drama story, every revenge fantasy Eddie had seen (and some he'd even made up for himself), they always said that taking one life wouldn't bring another back. That was still true, but he didn't see it as an exchange. More like a price to be paid; if you take one life, it's on you to replace it with something else.

He just hoped Mom wasn't watching his latest sin of grave-defiling. Though, with Symby's anxious voice in his ears as he sat on the nearest bench waiting for his own redemption, she easily filled in that role of giving him all the guilt he deserved.

"_**Even if it does work… what if he doesn't change? What if we're just putting another criminal back on the streets? What if he really does become a killer one day?"**_

She was echoing his own questions at him, either deliberately or subconsciously, since he'd been asking them to himself ever since he came up with the idea. In the end, he'd just went and asked Felicia for one of the stones she'd swiped and took it from there. She hadn't asked why he wanted one, not when he said only said he wanted to 'set something right'. Either she could see for herself what he planned to do, or she just trusted him enough that it wouldn't be something she'd regret helping with. He couldn't really tell. Having anyone that wasn't an alien trust him was taking some getting used to.

Being in love with someone that wasn't an alien, that was strange too. Eventually he'd stop being surprised from every morning he woke up next to her, sometimes with Symby wreathed between their fingers and joining their hands together in black gloves. But until then, he was happy to let it make him humble.

After all, the last thing he needed, if it turned out he could raise the righteous dead after all, was a God complex (again).

"I think we'll scare him straight," he said, looking left and right and behind for anyone coming near. He doubted anyone would be visiting after 9pm and Symby helped camouflage him in the dark, away from the streetlights lining the paths, but in a city bloated with superheroes he'd learned to be cautious. If Parker came across him he'd be itching for an excuse to throw Venom into a skyscraper, and that would have been the case even if Venom didn't steal his ex.

Eddie kept watching the hole in the ground, one leg bouncing restlessly, waiting for something to happen, just as he had been doing for the last five minutes. He hadn't thought it was possible to be bored while waiting on a miracle, but he'd been proven wrong about a lot of things lately.

"Any day now, Norton… c'mon, we got places to be." He was supposed to be having dinner with Felicia that night, and though they were both practically nocturnal (mostly due to them keeping each other up most of the night) he didn't want to leave it too late to get something for her. He'd noticed that any places still open after midnight usually just stopped trying to make anything taste good; why bother when all the customers were probably half-asleep?

"_**Maybe we missed a step," **_Symby suggested, flashing through Eddie's memories of Cletus' revival for anything that hadn't stood out before. But he shook his head even as the snapshots came through his head.

"I don't think so. Seemed pretty simple when Hood did it, just… shove a stone in them and boom, they wake up. Maybe it's just taking longer to patch him up or something." That seemed the most likely explanation for why it was taking so damn long, especially with the state he'd found the body in (he was almost grateful for the after-images of Cletus gasping back to life, since his corpse had been slightly less stomach-churning to look at). He sighed, hunching over with his elbows on his knees. "Did Felicia do anything different?"

"_**What do you mean?" **_Symby was confused, which made Eddie confused as well.

"You know, when… when she used one on me, after I died."

"_**Felicia didn't bring you back with the stone, Eddie."**_

"...Huh?" Even though it was a fact sent right through his brain cells, it still took him a few seconds to process it. As usual his head was stubborn to accept anything that told him he'd been thinking wrong this whole time.

"_**It's strange…"**_ Symby didn't seem to really register the shockwaves of protest from his neurons, too lost in her own musing over it. "_**I saw Carnage empty your throat. The cut was so deep that I knew I couldn't heal the damage fast enough... but your heart didn't stop beating. I could still feel it when I bonded to Felicia. And when we found you, the wound was gone. We have no idea what happened in between."**_

This was the first Eddie had heard of any of this; neither Felicia nor Symby had made any question out of how he survived, nor how his wound had impossibly healed. Symby had hidden certain things from him before, during darker days, but this wasn't a case of that. She thought he'd known all along that someone else had risen him, that he _knew _who it was and just didn't think it was important enough to talk about.

Eddie was still blinking in shock, grasping at the implications of this revelation as they flew right at him. "But... Felicia's the only one who had those stones on her. If she didn't use one on me, then who the hell did?!"

Symby didn't have an answer for him- not at first, at least. But then Eddie realised he had been wrong yet again. The only people who had those stones were Felicia… and the one she stole them off of. But if she'd missed one...

"_OH MY GOD!" _

Eddie's head snapped up, and he saw Norton standing there in his dirt-stained suit, staring down at his own gravestone. He'd been so lost in the possibility of having to owe the Hood of all people such an enormous favour that he hadn't noticed the former cadaver had finally dragged himself out of his coffin.

Luckily, Norton hadn't yet noticed him. He was a little too busy piecing together his not-death and making sure all his pieces where were they were supposed to be, hands constantly returning to his head as if to make sure it was actually there on his shoulders.

"Oh my… God," he repeated, through a throat so hoarse he must have swallowed some dirt while he was down there. "Gods? Jesus… what the hell…?"

"**Welcome back, Looter." **

"GAAAAH! NO! PLEASE, PLEASE NO-!

Venom expected Norton to be surprised by his sudden appearance behind him, but he hadn't expected him to jump so far that he almost fell right back into his grave. He managed to save Norton from the six-foot fall by grabbing his arm with a tendril and claw, wrenching him back onto solid ground even as he cowered and flinched away.

Eventually Norton realised he was really still alive; first looking down at the mud tumbling loose at the edge of the hole to thud back onto his coffin, then slowly summoning the strength to face his rescuer. Venom released his arm to make things a little easier, cocking his head in curiosity at everything the stone had managed to fix. Norton was pale from so many days underground, his eyes bloodshot and body still shaking from getting used to breathing again, but if it wasn't for the mud on his burial suit no-one would have been able to tell he'd been dead just five minutes ago.

Although, from how he gulped and looked in shock at his arm, as if surprised he still had it attached after Venom held it, he looked like he wished he still was.

"Did…" He gulped again, swallowing down mud and maggots. "D-d-did you…?" He pointed a shivering finger down at the hole he'd called his home for the last two weeks.

"**Did we kill you?" **Venom asked for him. "**No. But we **_**did **_**resurrect you."**

Norton squinted, likely not buying it for a second (and why would he? Venom hadn't exactly advertised himself as a savior of the D-class villains) even as he patted his chest, over where his heart was pierced. But, looking left and right in quick glances so his eyes never left Venom, he saw nothing else that would easily explain his situation. He straightened his back, gaining a little more confidence now that it was less likely he was about to die all over again.

"Wh… why? N-Not that I'm not grateful, I-I mean, but…?"

Venom let the moment hang for a while, pulling his lips over his fangs with effort as he leaned down. Norton still flinched as far as the space between him and his grave would allow, though he seemed more worried about being splattered with drool than anything else.

"**Because the man who killed you had no right to," **Venom told him, "**so we sent him to death in your place. And someone dear to us seems to think you're worth giving one last chance. But if you blow this chance… well, we brought you here from hell." **Then Venom took a firm hold of his shoulder, deliberately squeezing down to the bone with his claws. "**Do you know what that means, Norton?"**

As he narrowed his eyes, Norton's bloomed and almost burst out of their sockets. Venom could feel his skeleton trying to flee from his skin, all fear focused from that single point of contact on his shoulder, as he struggled to even shake his head.

"**It means that we can send you right back if we need to." **When Venom finally released him again, he'd somehow gone even paler, practically glowing like the surface of the moon.

"I'll… I-I'll be good." Every word that wasn't a stutter was reduced to a squeak as he edged backwards, skirting the grave to hide behind the stone with his inaccurate death date carved into it. "I'll be good, I-I swear, just… please don't make me… don't send me back-!"

Venom cocked his head again, this time wondering what Norton's afterlife would have looked like, if he was so terrified of going back to it. Who he would have seen, what they would have said to him. Hopefully something along the lines of 'stop stealing shit'. Or at least to try it with a better name.

"**That's what we like to hear." **Venom restored his grin to its full glory, and with a single sweep of his arm he cut the mountain of dirt piled beside the grave in half, shoving it back into the hole where it belonged. "**Now go home to your poor sister."**

Norton nodded furiously even as he stumbled over other much more intact graves, the ground in front still bulging from being disturbed. "Right! Right, yeah, yeah! I'll… I'm going. You-you won't see me again, I swear!"

Venom watched him scurry away as he kicked the last of the dirt into the empty grave and pulled the headstone free from the ground, since it wasn't needed any more.

"**One more thing," **he called out, making Norton almost trip over the edge of the path he was running towards. "**If you ever see Black Cat, be sure to thank her. She's the reason you're alive."**

Norton kept nodding blindly, his only concern being getting far the hell away from any more dirt. He'd realise the significance of it when he caught up on all the news he'd missed from being buried. And, like the rest of the city, he'd probably be really grossed out. Eddie had to laugh at that, keeping Venom's grin on his face as Symby pulled back from it.

"I don't know about you, Symby, but I think we did pretty good tonight," he said proudly.

"_**I think we should have eaten him while he was fresh," **_she added.

"Symby…"

"_**I'm kidding!" **_She set loose a jolt of endorphins to prove it to him. "_**Jeesh, sometimes I think Felicia is the only human on this planet with a sense of humour."**_

Eddie rolled his eyes as he pulled out his phone, this time keeping it in a more conventional pocket in his jeans so his whole clothes wouldn't shake whenever it vibrated. Though, there was only one person he had it set to vibrate for.

"Speaking of her, she wants to know what time we're having dinner at."

"_**Ooh, I want steak!"**_

"Sorry, love," he said while tapping out a reply to Felicia. "We already decided on Chinese last night."

"_**What? Where was I during this?!"**_

"It was when we were watching the robot movie and you were hiding behind her couch cause you got upset at Ironhide dying." He pocketed the phone again, stamped down the last of the dirt over the hole they'd filled in, and breathed a sigh of relief as he finally headed for the graveyard exit.

"Anyway, you're on a diet," he added as he started walking.

"_**WHAT?!" **_Symby flooded his veins with her own stress hormones, cortisol bloating his bloodstream even as he grinned.

"Just kidding." That's what she got for saying he had no sense of humour, and though he could feel her somehow pouting without actual lips she let up on the endocrine attack. "Don't worry, she said she'd have something for you."

"_**...Is it chocolate?"**_

"It might be."

"_**I love her, Eddie."**_

"You and me both, darling."


End file.
